http://github.com/dylang/node-rssRSS for NodeFri, 22 Feb 2019 17:00:56 GMTThe US government claims OneCoin is a $4 billion cryptocurrency fraud. So why the delay in prosecutions?
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/onecoin-ponzi-at-last-heading-to-us-courts/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/onecoin-ponzi-at-last-heading-to-us-courts/<p>Much has been written about Dubai-based <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=onecoin&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=nws&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjT5rDehs_gAhU7WhUIHXbtBM4Q_AUIDigB&amp;biw=1222&amp;bih=677">OneCoin Ltd</a> and Belize-based OneLife Ltd (aka OneLife Network), that many have alleged is the biggest ever crypto-based <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ponzischeme.asp">Ponzi</a> scheme. But many questions still remain.</p>
<p>Where is the OneCoin money now? Where is Ruja Ignatova, the Bulgarian-born German citizen, who allegedly started OneCoin in 2014 and still remains at large? And why has the US Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network not issued a single press release – let alone a warning to the public – which mentions OneCoin and have yet to make any convictions?</p>
<p>Back in September 2018, a special assistant US attorney <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/397996997/Mark-Scott">told</a> a judge in the US Southern District of New York that OneCoin was an international &#8220;hybrid Ponzi pyramid scheme” that defrauded victims of approximately $4 billion.</p>
<p>“It is a fraudulent cryptocurrency that does not have, as far as the investigation has determined, a true blockchain, and most investors have not been able to recoup or take their money out of the scheme once they invest in these coins,” the attorney Julieta Lozano said. “There is some degree of Ponzi scheme here simply because there are commissions paid to promoters and recruiters in order to bring in more victims.&#8221;</p>
<p>This was at the trial of US lawyer Mark S Scott, a former partner with the international law firm Locke Lord, who stood accused of laundering approximately $400m via a network of hedge funds, Cayman Island bank accounts and businesses in Ireland. Lozano claimed in court that these funds were from OneCoin.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, on February 8, Scott was served a grand jury subpoena that requested “a wide variety of documents” related to OneCoin. Scott is currently trying to use a Fifth Amendment privilege – &#8220;the constitutional right of a person to refuse to answer questions or otherwise give testimony against himself&#8221; – to contest the indictment, which relates to transactions of OneCoin investor funds between entities based in the US and internationally.</p>
<h4>Extradited from Thailand</h4>
<p>Last November, the Bangkok Post <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1570022/cops-take-new-tack-as-crime-goes-global">reported</a> that Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division responded to an Interpol red notice – in support of the FBI – and apprehended a Swedish citizen, Sebastian Greenwood, who has been described as the &#8220;public face of OneCoin&#8221;. He was charged with operating a “digital currency pyramid scheme” and has been since extradited to the US.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Europol, Interpol and Germany’s financial supervisory agency BaFin are actively supporting ongoing investigations into OneCoin.</p>
<p>BaFin was one of the first agencies to react to OneCoin’s activities by issuing a cease and desist order in April 2017. A spokesperson for the body told Asia Times that it does not “comment on ongoing investigations of any kind” but did add that &#8220;if BaFin determines that an undertaking is actually conducting unauthorized business, as a supervisory authority it has extensive powers to immediately put an end to such business”.</p>
<p>Europol spokesperson Claire Georges would only tell Asia Times that “I can confirm Europol is involved in the ongoing investigation, but I cannot provide you with any further details. Europol’s role is a supporting one.”</p>
<h4>Interpol, warnings in many countries</h4>
<p>Interpol, based in Lyon, France convened the first two meetings of its new Darknet and Cryptocurrency Working Group last year but the body said that these meetings, and its investigations, were not ready to be revealed.</p>
<p>In New Zealand, the government&#8217;s Financial Markets Authority issued a warning in mid-December and simply stated that: “We recommend extreme caution before investing with OneLife or OneCoin as we are concerned they bear the characteristics of a scam, including withholding client funds and promising unrealistic returns.”</p>
<p>More than a dozen other countries have also issued warnings since 2017. There have also been dozens of news reports over the last year or so, especially from India and China, about cases brought against local-level operators of OneCoin. But nobody who was actually behind the alleged scheme has been tried yet.</p>
<p>The US Department of Justice has apparently been investigating OneCoin since at least 2017 but seems to have not issued an indictment until the Scott and Greenwood cases last year.</p>
<p>The delay could be because of jurisdiction, says Julie Myers Wood, former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the US Department of Homeland Security. The US must establish clear jurisdiction before it acts and other countries will be happy to wait for this to happen.</p>
<p>“Once someone is charged with a crime in [an American] federal court, the US has an extremely strong record of convictions and correspondingly, strong penalties for those convicted,&#8221; says Wood. &#8220;US authorities may have been engaged much earlier than was publicly apparent. The typical life of a criminal investigation is several years for federal white-collar and financial cases. The enforcement framework and requirements to bring a criminal prosecution are different for each enforcement agency.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wood added: &#8220;It is important to note that the US has different standards of proof from those countries that previously charged OneCoin principals.”</p>
<p>Cryptocurrencies are complicated things. And clearly so are the cross-border money-making webs that have emerged off the back of them over the last few years.</p>
Seeking to manage its over-dependence on primary trade and security partner Russia, Armenia is increasingly looking to China to ensure its future
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/armenia-adds-beijing-to-its-delicate-balancing-act/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/armenia-adds-beijing-to-its-delicate-balancing-act/<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Armenia </span><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;">has long pursued a </span><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;">four-pronged foreign policy of managing i<span class="s1">ts over-dependence on Russia </span></span><span class="s1">— </span><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;"><span class="s1">the nation’s primary trade and security partner — while deepening ties with the European Union, </span></span><span class="s1">sustaining links to the United States and developing trade with neighboring Iran.</span></p>
<p>More recently <span class="s1">there has been an added strategic priority that consists of an uncharacteristically subtle and stealthy pursuit of engagement with China.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> This </span></span><span class="s1">“eastward embrace” may seem surprising, given the disparity in size and remote connections between Armenia and China, but the strategy is very much in line with the interests of both nations. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">For landlocked Armenia, survival has traditionally meant a delicate balancing act between the West, backed by its sizeable diaspora, and Russia, which offered important security, economic and energy ties in return for accepting a place well within Moscow<span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;">’s</span> orbit. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">China recognizes that Armenia is t</span><span class="s1">oo small and remote to be of any great significance on its own, but is</span><span class="s1"> a stable and promising element of a much larger landscape; the country<span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;">’s</span> position at the intersection of the Caucasus and the broader Middle East offers a pivotal bridgehead.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p>Armenia has <span class="s1">appeared on the Chinese agenda of expanding trade and infrastructure and is now part of a bigger picture of enhancing Beijing’s influence and prestige. The latter is especially important in terms of the longer-term rivalry with Russia within Eurasia.</span></p>
<p>On the geopolitical front, Armenia has been careful in cultivating China, as was seen in a five-page joint declaration concluded in March 2015 at the close of an official visit to China by then-President Serzh Sarkisian.</p>
<p>Reached after talks with President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang, the declaration included a clear statement of Armenia’s position regarding Taiwan, stressing that Armenia opposed the island’s independence and pledged to avoid any “official contact” with Taiwan. Armenia also agreed to support “all Chinese government efforts to unite the country”.</p>
<h3>Belt &amp; Road creates a new bridgehead</h3>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">From an Armenian perspective, drawing closer to China offers </span><span class="s1">opportunities in the future and more practical and immediate benefits.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> In particular, it means the country can</span></span> position itself early in the scramble to be included in China’s Belt Road Initiative.</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Drawing Chinese capital investment in infrastructure is already paying dividends, as </span><span class="s1">evident in Armenia’s “North-South” roadway, a project launched by the Asia Development Bank that is designed to provide “inter-connectivity” by extending and modernizing the national highway network to Georgia in the north and Iran in the south. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">There has also been serious progress in bilateral trade, with a 33% increase to over $604 million in 2017. At the same time, China has provided at least $50 million in economic assistance since 2012.</span></p>
<p>Much of that trade centers on rising exports to China of wine and other alcoholic beverages, as well as canned-food produce and chocolates. The Armenian government is also working to develop its information technology sector through expanded cooperation with China.</p>
<p>Armenian imports from China have been largely limited to electronic goods and cheap textiles, and are not expected to greatly change in the short-to-medium-term as the country focuses on exports.</p>
<p>The more practical immediate benefits of the relationship are derived from <span class="s1">Armenia’s</span><span class="s1"> need to enhance its security, and China has become a willing partner. Initially the focus was </span><span class="s1">on military education, under an agreement reached with the People’s Liberation Army in 2012. But it has been broadened to “military cooperation”, reportedly including training.</span></p>
<h3>Closer defense ties, but Russia is watching</h3>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Such links have involved increasing financial support from China, in a region long dominated by the United States and Russia. </span><span class="s1">Beijing gave about five million yuan (US$740,000) </span><span class="s1">in annual military aid to Yerevan in 2013-2016, but the sum rose to </span><span class="s1">10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in 2017. </span></p>
<p>There has also been a series of arms deals stretching back to the late 1990s that included shipments of WM-80 rockets systems and AR1A multiple-launch rocket systems; the latter has a firing range of more than 100 kilometers. The most recent deal, in 2013, also involved a multiple-launch rocket system, this time with a range of about 128 kilometers.</p>
<p class="p2">For Armenia, Chinese military cooperation is driven by two factors. First, in a broader sense, it stems from the need to lessen Armenia’s dependence on Russia by spreading its options. And second, it is a response to growing Russian military ties with its rival Azerbaijan.</p>
<p class="p2">The Azerbaijan factor is especially sensitive for Armenia, which bemoans the rather meager benefits from its allegiance to Russia: these include being the only host of a Russian base and being the only member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in the region.</p>
<p class="p2">Dissatisfaction has grown over Russia’s deepening military ties with Azerbaijan as <span style="font-size: 17px;">Moscow has become Baku<span class="s1">’s </span>primary arms supplier. Some 65% of Azerbaijani weapon imports came from Russia in 2013-2017, </span>according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.</p>
<p>It is Moscow, rather than <span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;">Yerevan, Beijing, or even Washington, </span>that may be the main obstacle to<span style="font-size: 17px;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-size: 17px;">Armenia’s strategic embrace of China and pursuit of deepening military ties, if it</span> comes to resent being upstaged by this new rival. It seems unlikely that China would seek to challenge for dominance, given its limited interests in the South Caucasus compared with Russia, Turkey and Iran, but Moscow is watching Beijing closely.</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Yet this engagement with China may still work for Armenia, as ties to Beijing are still more acceptable and less threatening to Russia than any progress in Armenian relations with NATO or the United States. </span><span class="s1">For the Armenian government, the over-dependence on its chief security partner Russia necessitates a course correction.</span></p>
<p class="p4"><em><span class="s1">Richard Giragosian is the director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent think tank in Yerevan, Armenia. </span></em></p>
Facing a center-right election challenge, Netanyahu forges an alliance with an extremist movement
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/embattled-israeli-pm-embraces-far-right-fringe/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/embattled-israeli-pm-embraces-far-right-fringe/<p>This week, as center-left rivals of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu joined forces, the prime minister veered even further right for an impending electoral showdown, brokering a deal between his far-right allies and a fringe faction of extremists.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">On Wednesday, </span>the Jewish Home Party, part of Netanyahu&#8217;s governing coalition, announced that it would be running a joint list with the right-wing extremist party Otzma Yehudit, or <span class="s1">“</span>Jewish Power.<span class="s1">”</span></p>
<p class="p1">Otzma Yehudit representatives Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir are slated to take the fifth and eighth spots on the list, respectively. This makes it highly likely that members of the party will be represented in the Knesset. The agreement calls for a joint list, though it states that the two parties will operate independently after the elections.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The prospect is extremely problematic from a moral standpoint. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Otzma Yehudit&#8217;s members are self-declared heirs to the teachings of Meir Kahane, a deceased politician whose party was outlawed in the 1980s for being a racist political movement. Members of Kahane’s movement Kach have carried out several attacks against Arabs, prompting its listing as a terrorist organization in Israel, the United States and the European Union. The Brooklyn-born Kahane believed it should be illegal for Jews and gentiles to have sexual intercourse or marry, and that Arabs should be encouraged to leave Israel and the occupied territories. He was also an outspoken opponent of democracy. Instead, Kach believed in establishing a theocratic Jewish kingdom.</span></p>
<p>Prior to the terrorist listing,<span class="s1"> Kach in 1984 won a single seat and the openly racist rabbi served as a member until 1988. That year, the Knesset passed a law outlawing the party. Kahane himself was assassinated in 1990. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">The groups he founded, however, continue to pop up in various incarnations, the latest being Otzma Yehudit/Jewish Power. </span><span class="s1">One of the current members of the fringe party, Michael Ben-Ari, was elected to the Knesset for the National Union list in 2009.</span></p>
<h4>Blessed by Netanyahu</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The latest union between Jewish Home and Jewish Power would not have attracted much attention had it not been actively encouraged by Netanyahu. The prime minister is reported to have called relatives of members of both parties as well as their rabbis in an effort to ensure the completion of the agreement. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">In order to close the deal, the prime minister offered each party a “significant and equal” ministerial role in his future government. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">He even promised to compensate the Jewish Home party by offering them the 28</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> spot on the Likud list for one of their members. Achieving this deal was important enough to the prime minister that he canceled a long-sought audience with Russian President Vladimir Putin to tie up the loose ends. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">This is a complete change in the outlook of the Likud. Traditionally the ruling party billed itself as a national-liberal party, valuing the promotion of Arab rights. It considered the racist Kahanist ideology morally reprehensible. Previously, when Kahane spoke in the Knesset, Likud lawmakers walked out in protest. Therefore, Netanyahu’s actions shocked and appalled many.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Netanyahu’s decision to push for the alliance was likely motivated by a fear that small right-wing parties running separately would not garner enough votes to enter the Knesset. This, in turn, would shrink the right-wing bloc. This was a major concern since former chief of staff Benny Gantz managed this week to put together a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/netanyahu-rivals-unite-overtake-likud-in-polls/">new party</a>, Blue and White. The new center-left alliance is expected to outperform the Likud in elections, according to three polls.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"> If Gantz receives more votes come election day, April 9, Netanyahu will be reliant on other right-wing parties to support a coalition with the Likud, rather than the new center-left creation. Therefore, he has an interest in promoting the inclusion of extreme right-wing parties.</span></p>
<h4>Allies for immunity</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Netanyahu may have a second and complementary motivation. The premier is likely to be indicted for corruption charges in the very near future. He has been working to promote a law granting himself immunity from prosecution while he remains in office. The more hardline and right-wing the Knesset is, the easier it will be for Netanyahu to pass a bill keeping himself out of jail.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Criticism has also been leveled at the Jewish Home party. The Jewish Home is heir to the National Religious Party (NPR), which in its previous incarnation was a moderate national-religious list. The NRP was a perennial part of the government in the first few decades of the existence of the State of Israel. They were recently weakened when the two most notable members of the party, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, left to form a new party. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The vote within the Jewish Home over the merger was contentious. Secretary-General Nir Orbach stated that he “ideologically opposes” a union with Otzma Yehudit. The next day, Yifat Ehrlich, the top female candidate, left the party in protest. Although the move was supported by the leadership, there is </span><span class="s1">serious concern in the Jewish Home that moderate voters will be alienated by the union. The Israeli left and center parties joined in the criticism. Gantz said that Netanyahu betrayed his principles and had “lost his Zionism.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The move has also inspired harsh criticism among American Jews, again raising the specter of a schism between Israel and the US Jewish community. “Did Israel just lose Americas Jews?” the liberal American-Jewish paper the Forward <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/419690/if-israel-elects-racist-political-parties-it-will-lose-support-of-american/">asked</a>, arguing that the “normalization </span>of Otzma Yehudit’s racist, theocratic, and authoritarian spirit<span class="s1">”</span> should set off alarm bells. The New York-based Union of Reform Judaism and the left-wing T’ruah movement echoed those sentiments.</p>
<p class="p1">Criticism also came from less-expected quarters. The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a staunch defender of Israel in the United States, <a href="https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/1098323682261430272">stated</a> unequivocally on Twitter that “there should be no room for racism &amp; no accommodation for intolerance in Israel or any democracy,” adding that it was “troubling they are being legitimized by the union.”</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is hard to disagree with these sentiments. Israeli politics is awash with cynical horse-trading and dirty deals. The proportional representation system and the coalition governments they spawn lend themselves to craven behavior. However, the embrace of unabashed terror-supporting racists by a governing prime minister must qualify as a new low. </span></p>
BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government presents a budget to please both Hindus and Muslims ahead of general elections
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/questions-over-uttar-pradeshs-pre-poll-budget/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/questions-over-uttar-pradeshs-pre-poll-budget/<p>With general elections looming, the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Uttar Pradesh government has presented its annual state budget, handing bounties to cow protection, Hindu pilgrimages, the Sanskrit language, and other causes. Presenting the biggest ever budget for the state, which the government dubs &#8220;welfare-oriented&#8221;, it clearly tries to please citizens on religious lines.</p>
<p>Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest number of lawmakers to the Parliament, is crucial in India&#8217;s political equation. The BJP needs to get the maths right in Uttar Pradesh if it is to win the upcoming general elections and retain power for another term with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the country&#8217;s helm.</p>
<p><em>Hindutva</em> (Hindu nationalism) remained at the very center of the 4,790 billion rupees (US$67.15 billion) budget, 12% higher than the previous year. It is because the ideology is pursued diligently by the Narendra Modi-led federal government and furthered by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Ajay Singh Bisht also known as Yogi Adityanath.</p>
<p>In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the state government has earmarked 6.12 billion rupees (US$8.5 million) for the protection and welfare of cows, including around 2.5 billion rupees for setting up and running cattle shelters for stray cows. Uttar Pradesh has lately been facing a massive <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/tensions-among-farmers-in-uttar-pradesh-on-the-rise-as-stray-cows-run-amok/articleshow/67343354.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">problem</a> with stray cows and cattle on the street and farmlands due to restrictions on cattle slaughter and trade and rising <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/holy-cows-threaten-modis-return-to-power/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cow vigilantism</a>.</p>
<p>Something along these lines was expected, as cows are revered as sacred by Hindu nationalists. The chief minister, who is the high priest of the Gorakshnath Temple in Uttar Pradesh, is a cow lover himself who has imposed a special duty on liquor to help support destitute cows.</p>
<h4>Religion vs education</h4>
<p>The opposition claims that 6.12 billion rupees, which equates to 42,000 rupees per village, is meager considering the number of stray cattle. “In comparison (to the cow budget), only 4.9 billion rupees has been granted for the infrastructure of primary schools, many of which are in bad shape,” said Nishi Sahni, a school principal from Uttar Pradesh.</p>
<p>Funds have also been given for research centers devoted to the study of ancient Indian (v<em>edic</em>) science, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Late BJP leader and Prime Minister) and Baba Gorakshnath.</p>
<p>The government has also decided to develop an International Buddhist Center and a Center for Excellence in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in Siddharth University Kapilvastu, Siddharth Nagar.</p>
<p>However, the higher education sector is not satisfied.</p>
<p>“State Universities, which are facing (a) fund crunch for years affecting their expansion and teachers’ recruitment, have been grossly ignored. At the same time hefty allocations are there for the development of Sanskrit language,” said Professor Mukul Srivastava of Lucknow University.</p>
<p>The government has set aside 3.14 billion rupees for schools, colleges and universities offering education in the ancient Indian language Sanskrit, a commitment made by the BJP in its <a href="http://www.bjp.org/en/media-resources/press-releases/press-release-bjp-lok-kalyan-sankalp-patra-for-uttar-pradesh-assembly-election-2017-28-01-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll manifesto</a> in 2017.</p>
<p>The 100-year-old Lucknow University has not been painted in a decade and Prof Srivastava is the only full-time teacher in the Department of Journalism. But it received 20 million rupees for setting up a research chair in the name of the late Indian prime minister and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.</p>
<p>Educators warn that irrational budgets in the education sector will further dent publicly-funded education, benefiting the private sector.</p>
<p>Further aiding Hinduism, around 4.6 billion rupees was approved for the <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/up-budget-focus-on-development-beautification-of-ayodhya-varanasi-religious-sites-119020700576_1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">development</a> of religious sites in Ayodhya, Mathura, Braj, Garmukteshwar, Varanasi and 50 million rupees set aside for building boundary walls around the Ramleela grounds (where a dramatic folk re-enactment of the Hindu god Rama&#8217;s life takes place) in the state, delivering on BJP pre-election promises.</p>
<h4>Silent on jobs</h4>
<p>The budget is silent on job generation. Rather, it talks about self-employment and support to semi-skilled workers like barbers, masons, and tailors. This is despite the fact that the BJP promised millions of jobs, but <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indias-employment-data-leave-modi-govt-red-faced/">unemployment</a> has only gone up.</p>
<p>“The employment generation for skilled youth and loan waivers for farmers both are missing from the Yogi’s budget. Dues of many sugarcane farmers are pending despite allocation in the last fiscal,” said Lalji Verma, a legislator from the Bahujan Samaj Party.</p>
<p>Congress leader Ajay Singh Lallu also alleged that the government has ignored the core issues of the poor, farmers and youth.</p>
<p>CM Bisht told media persons after the budget, “Rather than being a populist one, this budget is for people’s welfare. Adequate funds have been given for infrastructure development, Rural, medical education and health, urban development, women and child welfare, metro as well.”</p>
<p>Finance minister Rajesh Agrawal <a href="https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defended</a> the budget saying, “If we have dedicated funds for cow-shelters, we have also given money for Madrasas. We have taken care of every community. The support to Sanskrit schools (and) vedic science centers aims to encourage our ancient texts and culture.”</p>
<h4>Madrasa modernization</h4>
<p>The BJP government’s proposal to spend 4.5 billion rupees for modernization of madrasas (Islamic schools) has raised many eyebrows. This is being viewed as the government’s <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/modi-plays-temple-politics-minorities-set-to-play-key-election-roles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempt to woo Muslims</a>, especially the Shia community.</p>
<p>The announcement has come in the wake of the failure of hardline Hindu nationalism pursued by Bisht during his electoral campaigns in three key states, which BJP lost in assembly elections two months ago, say experts.</p>
<p>Minorities constitute 20% of the Uttar Pradesh electorate, and a section of Muslims, especially Shias, voted for the BJP in the 2014 general elections that brought the party to power. Their votes in the upcoming general elections, expected to be held in April-May, will be crucial.</p>
<p>Ramesh Dixit, a political analyst, said, “The <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/socialist-dalit-alliance-aims-to-jam-bjps-state-juggernaut/?_=5690959" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alliance of two regional satraps</a>—Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party— along with Congress’ increased popularity and <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/priyanka-gandhi-could-revive-past-congress-glories-in-uttar-pradesh/?_=4351372" target="_blank" rel="noopener">entry of Priyanka Gandhi</a> as the election in-charge of Congress in eastern Uttar Pradesh is likely to spoil the BJP’s game. In the name of modernization, BJP is indulging in Madrasa politics just like previous regimes.”</p>
<p>There are almost 20,000 madrasas across the state, according to government estimates, and the actual figure may be higher. Then there are fake Madrasas as well; the government has <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/madarsas-uttar-pradesh-saharanpur-1100411-2017-12-05" target="_blank" rel="noopener">busted</a> 17 such premises in Saharanpur district alone. From dress code to yoga, Bisht&#8217;s government has also imposed several norms on Madrasas in the last two years.</p>
<p>“Madrasas have mushroomed across the state over the last decade, many of them being run from one or two rooms. Modernization of Madrasa is just an eyewash. These children need to be mainstreamed rather than being put up in seminaries,” says Athar Hussain, director of Centre of Objective Research and Development, Lucknow.</p>
<p>While there is no official data on the number of pupils there, community leaders peg the number at two million. The state’s significant Muslim population stands at around 40 million. The state&#8217;s Muslims may not play a decisive role in the upcoming election, but they will be important for the BJP as its popularity declines in the Hindi heartland.</p>
Could Minsk be swallowed by Moscow? A national merger is, in fact, on the table, but it looks unlikely
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/belarus-tough-choice-russian-oil-or-national-sovereignty/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/belarus-tough-choice-russian-oil-or-national-sovereignty/<p>It looked like a surprisingly amicable bout in a strongman versus strongman competition. “Completely independent states do not exist,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during the latest talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Aleksandr Lukashenko.</p>
<p>The two leaders were discussing prospects of their two nations’ integration. “All countries are interdependent,” added Putin – almost certainly a reference to Belarus’ dependence on duty-free oil exports from Russia, the halting of which has sparked tensions between the neighbors in recent times.</p>
<p>According to observers, the Kremlin has been using economic pressure to try to to convince Belarus to gradually give up its sovereignty and merge with Russia into a single unified state.</p>
<p>Lukashenko, who has been leading Belarus as “Europe’s last dictator” since 1994, was as diplomatic and ambiguous as he always is when dealing with his powerful eastern neighbor. “We’re ready to unite and consolidate our efforts, states and peoples as far as you are ready,” he said. Yet, he said, Belarus’ sovereignty is “sacred” and not open to question.</p>
<p>In a previous meeting last December, Lukashenko’s tone was harsher. He openly accused Russia of using tariffs on oil exports as a way to blackmail Belarus and undermine sovereignty: “I can read between the lines and I understand the hints,” he said in front of the Russian press. “You should just say it out loud: Destroy the country and become part of Russia.”</p>
<h4><strong>No integration? No subsidies! </strong></h4>
<p>Belarus (“White Russia”) is a land-locked country to the south of the Baltic States, east of Poland and west of Russia proper. But with its population of 9.4 million and a GDP of $201 billion last year, it is a minnow compared to giant Russia, with its population of 146 million and a GDP of $4.3 trillion.</p>
<p>Formerly part of the Soviet Union and before that, the Russian Empire, Belarus acquired independence in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Together with Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, it is now part of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. As such, Belarus has been able to import tax-free oil products from Russia, refine them domestically and resell them to the West at market prices.</p>
<p>However, last June, Russia announced that energy subsidies to Belarus would be halted, presumably because they had become too much of a burden for an economy squeezed by Western sanctions. The oil tax maneuver is a significant blow for Belarus&#8217; state budget, which could lose around $10 billion by 2025.</p>
<p>Minsk’s attempts to be compensated for these losses have yielded no concrete results. In December, Putin said clearly that if Belarus wants to keep its trading privileges with Russia, it should move further along the path to integration.</p>
<p>“Russia is ready to continue to advance along the path of the construction of the Union State,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during a visit to the Belarusian city of Brest. Medvedev was referring to the 1999 Union Treaty, which envisioned a merger of the two nations into a single federal entity called the Union State of Russia and Belarus, with a common money issuing center, customs service and judiciary.</p>
<p>However, little progress has been made on the integration treaty since being signed – due mainly to Lukashenko&#8217;s hesitation. He sees common monetary and immigration policies as a threat to Belarus’s sovereignty – and therefore, to his own power.</p>
<p>But some members of the Russian elite think Lukashenko has taken advantage of Russia’s generous subsidies for too long, while giving too little in return. Hence, Putin’s ultimatum seems clear: If you want to keep subsidies, then surrender some of your sovereignty.</p>
<p>A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, believes that the creation of a United State of Belarus and Russia is a ploy by Putin to keep the reins of power after his mandate constitutionally expires in 2024. A bi-national merger would allow him to proclaim himself as head of the new supranational state, and thereby continue his presidential duties.</p>
<h4><strong>Merger looks unlikely </strong></h4>
<p>After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the possibility of the newly aggressive Russia swallowing up Belarus has become more real. Like Eastern Ukraine, Belarus shares a common Soviet legacy with Russia, as well as deep linguistic and ethnic ties which, according to the most imperialistic factions of the Russian elite, qualifies it as part of the “Russian World.”</p>
<p>However, according to Belarusian journalist and political analyst Artyom Shraibman, a fully-fledged merger of the two countries is unlikely anytime soon.</p>
<p>Firstly, most Belarusians do not support unification with Russia. According to recent <a href="https://newizv.ru/news/politics/07-01-2019/opros-belorusy-ne-hotyat-prisoedinyatsya-k-rossii">polls</a>, the overwhelming majority of Belarusians are happy with the current degree of integration with Russia; only around 10% would support a full-blown merger.</p>
<p>In terms of foreign policy, Belarus has been enjoying benefits from its neutral role in the escalating conflict between Russia and the West, and around 60% of the population support this policy direction.</p>
<p>Moreover, unlike in Ukraine, Belarus has no pro-Russian political force or ethnic minority which could be used by Moscow to destabilise the local government. Lukashenko heads a strong authoritarian regime, with local elites fully loyal to him and no space for dissent or subversive movements. Besides cracking down on pro-Western activists, Lukashenko’s security apparatus has also been persecuting voices that openly advocate a merger with Russia.</p>
<p>A direct military intervention is another far-fetched scenario. Unlike Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, Russia would not be able to count on the support of the local population and a military offensive would likely face popular resistance. And forceful annexation would almost certainly result in additional Western sanctions, which would further squeeze the stagnating Russian economy and possibly trigger dangerous unrest at home.</p>
<p>Even the theory that Putin seeks the merger in order to retain power, is improbable, according to Shraibman: Putin could feasibly change the Russian constitution to remain in power, or he could select a successor, thereby ensuring a safe exit for himself in 2024.</p>
<p>Overall, the benefits for Moscow in swallowing up Belarus look limited compared to the risks. Besides, as Shraibman notes, Moscow is already in a win-win position. “If Belarus agrees to further integrate, Moscow wins,” he said. “If Minsk rejects the proposal, Moscow also wins, as it will be saving money on oil tariffs.”</p>
<p>According to Shraibman, Lukashenko is likely to go for the second option as the lesser evil.</p>
<p>“Losing Russian subsidies will be a blow for Lukashenko, but it would still preferable to losing his absolute control over the country,” he said.</p>
Israeli elections take a twist, as former chief of staff Benny Gantz joins forces with former finance minister Yair Lapid
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/netanyahu-rivals-unite-overtake-likud-in-polls/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/netanyahu-rivals-unite-overtake-likud-in-polls/<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, already facing potential indictment, has a major political challenge ahead of legislative elections on April 9: his rivals united into a new political force.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Less than 24 hours before the deadline for registration of elections lists, former chief of staff Benny Gantz and former finance minister Yair Lapid announced they were merging their parties. The new union is named Blue and White, for the colors of the Israeli flag. The party will also include former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who brokered the deal and is an immensely popular figure in the country.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In an inaugural press conference on Thursday, Gantz promised the new union would “win and win big”. There was even an emotional moment when Gantz revealed that his mother and Lapid’s father had lived in the same apartment building in the <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/learn/mapping-initiatives/geographies-of-the-holocaust/budapest-ghetto">Budapest ghetto</a>, where the Nazis had forced thousands of Jews to live. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Lapid, for his part, said he genuinely believes in Gantz’s leadership qualities. While the idyllic cooperation between the two is unlikely to last, the press conference was convincingly warm and boded well for their campaign.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">According to three snap polls, if elections were held now, Blue and White would be the largest party in the Knesset by a comfortable margin. They would receive 35-36 mandates, according to the polls, while the Likud would receive 26-32. By providing an obvious home for the large number of Israelis who do not wish to see Netanyahu continue as prime minister, the new party has altered the electoral map.</span></p>
<h4>Khaki and White</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The new party is the result of feverish negotiations to unite Lapid’s Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party with Gantz’s Israel Resilience party.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Lapid held out for months despite repeated attempts to entice him into the union. A canny negotiator, the former journalist held out when Gantz was at the peak of his powers, waiting for the former general’s novelty value to lessen and his standing in the polls to drop somewhat before agreeing. As a result, he obtained a strong deal. If Blue and White forms the next government, Gantz and Lapid will rotate the premiership. Gantz will serve as prime minister until November 2021 and Moshe Ya’alon (number 3 in the party) will hold the role of defense minister. After that, Lapid will become prime minister and Gantz will take on the role of defense minister.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The addition of Ashkenazi brings the number of former chiefs of staff in the party to three. The decision to unite with Lapid and bring in Gabi Ashkenazi strengthens Gantz electorally. However, it does bring with it the risk of seeming elitist and detached. The party is clearly dominated by military figures and predominantly male and of Ashkenazi (European) background</span><span class="s1">. Jokes in the country abounded that the party should be called “Khaki and White” to signify its ethnic and military tendencies.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Gantz had been negotiating a possible union with the Gesher (Bridge) party and its leader, Orly Levy-Abekasis. As a party focused on social issues, Gesher would have added much-needed depth to the party on those issues. Abekasis </span><span class="s1">— </span><span class="s1">a woman of Mizrachi (Middle Eastern) descent </span><span class="s1">— </span><span class="s1">would have also brought much-needed diversity to the list. However, it appears Gantz used negotiations with Levy-Abekasis as leverage to lower Lapid’s demands. The head of Gesher was clearly upset by this turn of events. Abekasis said Gantz had failed the “credibility test” and that the way he handled talks was “weird and hallucinatory.”</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Despite its flaws, the union is set to genuinely challenge Likud primacy.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Blue and White party will, however, face significant difficulty in forming a coalition. </span><span class="s1">In Israel, the largest party does not automatically receive the opportunity to form the government. Rather, the head of each elected party notifies the President who they wish to see form the next government. Based on this information, the President then determines which party is most likely to form a stable government and allows them a chance to create a governing coalition. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">It is currently difficult to tell which parties will be part of the next Knesset and participate in this process. Several parties are struggling to obtain enough votes to enter the parliament. It is also unclear what some of the less ideologically right-wing parties such as Kulanu (All of us) and the ultra-orthodox parties will do if Blue and White receive a significantly larger number of seats than the Likud.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Zionist center-left may not receive enough votes to form a government on its own and therefore require support from the Arab-Israeli parties.</span></p>
<h4>Maintaining the Gulf</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Netanyahu gave a press conference of his own on Thursday, warning that a government based on an Arab party “blocking coalition” would be illegitimate since the Arab parties “not only don’t recognize Israel; they want to destroy Israel.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The prime minister also warned that the new party would promote the “failed policies of the Left”. </span><span class="s1">When it comes to foreign and security policy, this is almost certainly an exaggeration. Blue and White is unlikely to break strongly from the policies of the current government. While both Lapid and Gantz have criticized Netanyahu for his unwillingness to hold substantial talks with the Palestinian Authority, a dramatic breakthrough with them at the helm is unlikely. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Both Lapid and Gantz have expressed an unwillingness to divide Jerusalem or surrender the settlement blocs. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The new party would also be likely to continue Netanyahu’s successful policy of pursuing closer ties with the Gulf states as a counter to Iranian regional influence. But according to the Lapid party platform, they would seek to utilize that cooperation at home and integrate those informal alliances into the peace process. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Gantz and Lapid believe that by appearing to be more conciliatory towards the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia and other potential Arab allies would be more likely to cooperate with Israel more openly and be involved in negotiations. Saudi King Salman last summer conspicuously took over the Jerusalem file from his son, when he decided the brash heir known as MBS was promising too much to the Israelis and the Trump administration without preserving key Arab demands. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">White and Blue is likely to be more conciliatory in its image than in practice, howev</span><span class="s1">er, due to the mood in Israel and the inability of the Palestinians to present a united front. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Instead, the new party will focus on changing internal policies and the political discourse in the country. The message was one of unity and clean-dealing, which they juxtaposed with their portrayal of Netanyahu as a divisive and corrupt leader. This strategy is clearly designed with a decision pending by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on whether or not to indict Netanyahu in mind. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">They are betting that in April, Israel will be craving for cleaner leadership. They may be right. </span></p>
Muslims fear radical Hindus will restart hate campaign and lawyer asks why police failed to act
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shaikh-family-awaits-justice-for-2014-lynching/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shaikh-family-awaits-justice-for-2014-lynching/<p>Mohsin Shaikh, a 28-year-old engineer, was the first Muslim to die at the hands of a radical Hindu outfit after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power five years ago. Since then many Muslims have been <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/05/opinion/indias-viral-lynching-videos-are-dehumazing-generations/?_=4234565">lynched</a> by radical right-wing forces across India and little concrete action has been taken.</p>
<p>Shaikh was killed by about 20 boys on June 2, 2014. The murder took place in Hadapsar, a suburb of Pune in Maharashtra state. According to reports, the lynching was done by members of Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS), a radical Hindutva outfit, and led by Dhananjay Desai. Objectionable posts about Shivaji Maharaj, an Indian warrior king, and Bal Thackeray of Shiv Sena went viral on social media before the killing. Shaikh, who was wearing a skull cap, was with a friend heading home to Hadapsar from a nearby mosque when the incident occurred.</p>
<p>Mobin Shaikh, his brother, said: “Our worst fear was that if Dhanajay Desai gets bail, he would restart his hate campaign against minorities like Muslims. And our fear proved right. As soon as he got out of jail after getting bail, his supporters staged a rally with slogans hailing Hindus and opposing Muslims. That was despite bail conditions clearly stating that he should not hold public meetings or address public gatherings. But no attention was paid to that condition set by Bombay High Court. He and his Hindu Rashtra Sena held a rally in Pune. What is the guarantee that no such incident will take place?”</p>
<h4>Killers on bail, trial yet to start</h4>
<p>Police arrested the mob within a week with Desai detained on June 10, 2014. But 21 people including Desai and bar just one, all are out on bail. The trial on the lynching is yet to begin, more than four years since the incident occurred.</p>
<p>Desai’s bail plea was rejected multiple times by the Sessions Court in Pune, which is hearing the case, and also by the Bombay High Court, but he was released from Yerwada Jail on February 9. His supporters then held a rally from the prison to his house on Paud Road, carrying saffron flags and banners.</p>
<p>Desai’s bail plea was set on the condition that he not get involved in any public or political activities related to the HRS. He was told not to give any public speech or work for any organization till the trial is held. He was also ordered not to broadcast or publish any speeches, interviews, or comments on social media, and take down any boards or material related to HRS with immediate effect. These were the major conditions that Desai needs to follow.</p>
<p>Police Inspector Dinakar Mahite from Yerwada Station in Pune, said: “Following the rally with Desai, police lodged a complaint against over 150 people including Desai under the Mumbai Police Act 37(1) for prevention of public disorder and 137 people for a penalty for contravening rules. Though we have not arrested then, a charge-sheet will be filed and the case will be taken for trial.”</p>
<h4>Accused &#8216;led rally from jail&#8217;</h4>
<p>However, Mateen Shaikh, a lawyer for the victim in Bombay High Court, said: “A basic question is how police did not know that such large gathering was there near Yerwada Jail? No preventive orders were implemented? Videos and photographs of that rally clearly show that Desai was leading the rally. Participants were carrying saffron flags and were also shouting slogans. As soon as he comes out of jail he violated conditions set out by Bombay High Court for granting bail. This is contempt of court. The man already has over 15 cases against him for giving hate speeches against Muslims, apart from this particular case. Is he going to follow orders of the court?”</p>
<p>Azhar Tambli, a social activist from Pune, said: “Pune police should have immediately gone to the High Court to ask for a cancellation of bail after he violated bail conditions. And, Pune police are yet to oppose, or go to the Supreme Court to oppose the bail given by the High Court even before he was released.”</p>
<p>Dr K Venkatesham, the police commissioner in Pune, when asked what Pune Police would do next, said: “The legal and police team is contemplating how to go about it. We will decide it in the next few days.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, youths from across all faiths from 171 blocks or districts across the state have begun a movement called ‘Justice for Mohsin Shaikh’. They have submitted letters to respective official collectors demanding a trial to started promptly. They say Desai’s bail should be cancelled and Mohsin’s brother should be given a job.</p>
<h4>45 lynchings in nine states</h4>
<p>The victim&#8217;s brother Mobin, an accountant who works at a shop in Solapur, in Maharashtra, said: “We have been demanding the case to be taken to a fast-track court and a trial should begin. But now the future looks bleak. My father died due to a heart attack two months ago due to stress while fighting the case to get justice for my brother. My brother was an engineer and the main bread earner of the family. His death has shattered my family and nothing hopeful is happening. I just pray that no other person should suffer due to [Desai&#8217;s] hate speeches.”</p>
<p>His mother, who has high blood pressure and diabetes, has not been able to even express her emotions, he said.</p>
<p>Home Ministry officials in the Lower House of the Parliament, said official data shows that from 2014 till March 2018, 45 people have been killed in 40 cases of <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/07/article/indias-top-court-orders-legislation-to-curb-lynchings/?_=1177854">mob lynching</a> across nine states and over 250 people arrested for those crimes.</p>
<p>The reasons for lynchings include communal hatred, violence by &#8220;cow vigilantes&#8221; or child abuse among others.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, officials from the National Crime Records Bureau told the Upper House of Parliament they have no specific data on lynchings.</p>
<p>And the Supreme Court has asked the federal government to draft legislation to curb the growing incidents of lynchings and mob violence.</p>
The rapper sang part of a song by the Vietnamese star, leading to hopes of a collaboration
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/snoop-dogg-clip-has-tung-fans-all-excited/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/snoop-dogg-clip-has-tung-fans-all-excited/<p>Legendary rapper Snoop Dogg has been filmed singing some of the lyrics of a track by Son Tung M-TP, leading to speculation that he might do a collaboration with the Vietnamese star. In December they shared a Snapchat post that quickly went viral in Vietnam.</p>
<p>A video posted on the Instagram account @danrue shows Snoop Dogg dancing and hanging out with friends, when he suddenly sings a small part of Chay Ngay Di (Run Now), a hip-hop/rap song composed by Son Tung M-TP. The clip has racked up more than 500,000 views.</p>
<p>A video of Chay Ngay Di became the most-watched clip played on YouTube in a single day in Asia when it was released, notching up more than 22 million views. The previous record was held by K-pop boy group BTS, whose music video for the song DNA got about 21 million views.</p>
<p>In December a Snapchat post by <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/life/vietnam-s-v-pop-prince-seen-on-set-with-snoop-dogg-3854086.html">Snoop Dogg showed him on set with Son Tung M-TP</a>. The singer says: “Live on the set with Son Tung, you understand me?” Tung replies: “Exactly.” Then Snoop ends the video, saying: “It&#8217;s going down.”</p>
<p>The exchange was seen by fans of Tung as a hint of a possible collaboration, but there has been no confirmation by either artist.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1RpPlcpTn9s" width="540" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
Presidential candidates dish on each others’ land holdings and policies but until the state cedes more control the nation’s yawning wealth gap will only grow
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/this-land-isnt-your-land-in-indonesia/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/this-land-isnt-your-land-in-indonesia/<p>The scion of an elite family whose wealth puts Indonesian leader Joko Widodo’s modest holdings in the shade, presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto took a surprise shot when he raised the sensitive issue of state land ownership during a nationally televised presidential debate.</p>
<p>Seeking to burnish his nationalist credentials, Prabowo took the offensive in the February 17 debate by questioning the president’s policy of handing out land certificates to farmers, arguing that the Constitution’s Article 33 infers that the state owns all natural resources.</p>
<p>Without missing a beat, Widodo sprung an ambush on the retired general, noting that Prabowo “owns” 220,000 hectares of land in East Kalimantan, where he operates a paper pulp and plantation company, and another 120,000 ha planted in rubber and other crops in Central Aceh.</p>
<p>But more important than the president’s retort was the way the exchange opened a conversation that Indonesia has never really had about the complicated issue of land ownership, which is responsible for more social conflicts than anything else across the sprawling archipelago.</p>
<p>State control is also becoming an overall point of contention with Indonesia’s private sector, given the state’s perceived regulatory overreach in many sectors of the economy and the way Widodo’s government has favored state-owned enterprises for much of its vast infrastructure-building program.</p>
<p>According to an official 2003 State Secretariat English language translation, section 3 of Article 33 states that “the land, waters and natural wealth contained within them shall be under the powers of the state and shall be used to the greatest benefit of the people.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_287464" style="width: 1592px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-287464" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Indonesia-Papua-Trans-Papua-Highway-Public-Works-Ministry-2018-e1550830699403.jpg" alt="A section of the still under construction Trans-Papua Highway. Photo: Ministry of Public Works" width="1592" height="987" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Indonesia-Papua-Trans-Papua-Highway-Public-Works-Ministry-2018-e1550830699403.jpg 1592w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Indonesia-Papua-Trans-Papua-Highway-Public-Works-Ministry-2018-e1550830699403-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Indonesia-Papua-Trans-Papua-Highway-Public-Works-Ministry-2018-e1550830699403-1568x972.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1592px) 100vw, 1592px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A road construction project in Papua, Indonesia. Photo: Ministry of Public Works Indonesia</figcaption></figure>
<p>Where the controversy and debate arise is the Indonesian word <em>dikuasai</em>, which depending on the interpretation can mean anything from regulate to ownership. In the mid-1990s, president Suharto sought to establish the principle that as long as the government could control the use of land, it met the criteria laid down in the Constitution.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, however, the popularly accepted interpretation has increasingly leaned towards “own”— even though that specific word in Bahasa Indonesia is <em>milik</em>. The word has an emotive pull for many Indonesians and can serve as a powerful political tool depending on the way it is used.</p>
<p>Indeed, that is what lies at the heart of the government’s costly program of buying back or securing equity control over major mining and energy assets, such as Freeport’s copper and gold mine in Papua and Kalimantan’s Mahakam gas field previously operated by French firm Total.</p>
<p>“The span of interpretation goes from that which would be recognized in most countries, where the state ensures the proper use and regulation of resources, to North Korea where the state literally owns it all,” says one analyst.</p>
<p>Prabowo opened a new front in the debate about poverty and equality, noting that “1% of the population owns 50% of our wealth.” Although offering no specific suggestions on how to correct the imbalance, he made it clear that state ownership of resources was an important factor.</p>
<p>Analysts note that socio-economic equality has become a common theme of Prabowo’s campaign and also reflects part of the agenda of the so-called 212 Movement, the conservative Muslim lobby whose mass protests in 2016-2017 led to the downfall of Christian-Chinese Jakarta governor Basuki Purnama.</p>
<figure id="attachment_315043" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-315043 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Indonesia-Prabowo-Subianto-2019-Election-Campaign-August-10-2018-e1550831121950.jpg" alt="" width="1588" height="1056" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Indonesia-Prabowo-Subianto-2019-Election-Campaign-August-10-2018-e1550831121950.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Indonesia-Prabowo-Subianto-2019-Election-Campaign-August-10-2018-e1550831121950-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Indonesia-Prabowo-Subianto-2019-Election-Campaign-August-10-2018-e1550831121950-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Prabowo Subianto supporters under a banner while he registers as a presidential candidate. Photo: AFP Forum via NurPhoto/Aditya Irawan</figcaption></figure>
<p>Some commentators see the inequality issue as a not-so-subtle dig at the control Sino-Indonesian corporations exercise over business and large parts of the economy, a provocative sentiment that never lies far below the surface in Indonesia.</p>
<p>Widodo’s biting reference to Prabowo as part of the landed gentry, at a point in the debate where the candidate was attacking the rich, may have been seen as a low blow by his supporters. But it was clearly aimed at showing up Prabowo as a hypocrite on wealth distribution issues.</p>
<p>“The 2.6 million hectares in handouts are to transform the land into productive assets. We are not handing it out to major companies,” the president remarked pointedly about his land policy. “I want to note that these kind of handouts are not practiced under my administration.”</p>
<p>Widodo said establishing legal title was necessary to allow farmers access to financing and was one of the keys to an agrarian reform program that is eventually aimed at redistributing 12.7 million hectares to small land-holders across the archipelago.</p>
<p>Prabowo conceded he has cultivation rights over the land in Kalimantan and Aceh, but said he was willing to hand it back to the state. “Instead of foreigners getting control of the land, it is better that I manage it because I am an Indonesian, a nationalist and a patriot,” he said.</p>
<p>Foreigners cannot legally own land in Indonesia and those who have sought to circumvent the law by using an Indonesian nominee, particularly on the tourist island of Bali, have found to their detriment that such holding structures do not stand up in Indonesian courts.</p>
<figure id="attachment_228311" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-228311" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018.jpg" alt="Two in five adolescent girls in Indonesia are thin because of undernutrition. Photo: iStock" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-190x114.jpg 190w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-410x246.jpg 410w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-580x348.jpg 580w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-630x378.jpg 630w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-740x444.jpg 740w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-960x576.jpg 960w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Indonesian-girls-13-june-2018-1180x708.jpg 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Indonesians walk through a rice paddy field. Photo: iStock/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>Like Indonesians, foreign investors can secure a so-called <em>hak guna bangunan</em> through a limited liability company, established under domestic law and domiciled in Indonesia, which gives them the right to build and possess a structure on state or privately owned land.</p>
<p>Additionally, foreign business interests can also obtain a <em>hak guna usaha</em>, the title Prabowo actually holds in East Kalimantan, allowing them to cultivate state land for agriculture and farming enterprises for 25 years, extendable by another 35 years.</p>
<p>Only Indonesians, however, are entitled to a <em>hak milik</em>, the most complete form of land ownership, though it is subject to zoning regulations, to the extent they are enforced in Indonesia, and does not entitle the owner to exploit natural resources found on or under the land.</p>
<p>According to Indonesian specialist Kevin Evans, director of the Australia-Indonesian Centre, the controversy around Article 33 has a long rich history, harking back to the constitutional debates of the 1950s when supporters of Pancasila, the state ideology, and Islam were in competition to determine the future shape of the republic.</p>
<p>Lost in those discussions was a third socio-economic vision, rooted in prioritizing a statist view of Article 33 and promoted by a tiny coalition comprising the nationalist-communist Murba party, the Labour Party of Indonesia and a small communist party from West Java.</p>
<p>It is that vision, Evans argues, that has now become the mainstream and which Prabowo is articulating, even if his social stature and business interests would appear to make him an unlikely champion.</p>
Lookout circulars were issued against the Kochhar couple and Videocon MD to prevent them from fleeing abroad
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/cbi-notice-against-ex-icici-bank-chief-husband/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/cbi-notice-against-ex-icici-bank-chief-husband/<p>Former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon managing director Venugopal Dhoot, who were involved in a quid pro quo case, have been issued lookout circulars (LOCs) by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation.</p>
<p>The lookout circulars were issued against the Kochhar couple and Dhoot as a precautionary measure to prevent a repetition of high-profile exits like those of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/cbi-issues-look-out-circulars-against-kochhars-dhoot-in-corruption-case/articleshow/68105061.cms">Economic Times</a> reports. A lookout circular is mostly used at immigration checks at international borders such as airports to check if a traveler is wanted by the police.</p>
<p>The CBI move comes after it registered a first information report (FIR) against the Kochhars, Dhoot and others in a loan case involving the ICICI Bank and Videocon Group.</p>
<p>Related report: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ex-icici-bank-ceo-under-lens-for-quid-pro-quo-in-loan-case/">Former ICICI Bank CEO charged over loans to husband’s firm</a></p>
A video show the fearless badger tackling the much bigger predator after her cub was threatened
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/leopard-sent-packing-by-belligerent-badger/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/leopard-sent-packing-by-belligerent-badger/<p>Honey badgers have a reputation for being fearless and aggressive, especially when it comes to defending their young. But one mother took it to a new level when her cub was attacked by a leopard at the Kruger National Park in South Africa, with spectacular results.</p>
<p>The leopard followed the scent of the cub until its nose was nearly touching the rear of the small animal and then pounced. The cub, left alone for a short while, tried to fight back but was clearly outmatched.</p>
<p>Sahara Wulfsohn, a 28-year-old guide at the Kirkmans Kamp in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, recorded what happened next on a camera, <a href="https://www.getaway.co.za/videos/fearless-honey-badger-attacks-leopard-defend-cub/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Getaway</a> reported.</p>
<p>Hearing the cub’s cries, its mother scurried from some brush and flew at the leopard’s neck, throwing the bigger animal off balance. The startled leopard scrambled to its feet and ran off with the mother in hot pursuit.</p>
<p>The mother then dragged her cub to safety in a nearby termite mound. It reportedly suffered a broken right leg but is expected to survive.</p>
<p>A carnivorous animal, the honey badger relies on a thick skin and belligerent attitude to get itself out of scraps. Other badgers have been filmed taking on lions and snakes, and they will attack humans if provoked.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hLG_Q8FJda0" width="540" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
Party’s propaganda cadres praise film’s promotion of China’s soft power after Netflix announcement
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-sci-fi-thriller-to-be-streamed-worldwide/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-sci-fi-thriller-to-be-streamed-worldwide/<p>US video hosting platform Netflix said on Thursday that it had entered a partnership with China Film Company Ltd and other producers to stream worldwide the Chinese disaster sci-fi smash hit <em>The Wandering Earth</em>.</p>
<p>The deal comes after the Chinese-made production depicting a China-led joint bid to save the Earth from being engulfed by a bloated sun reaped more than 4 billion yuan (US$600 million) in box-office recipients as of this week, piquing intense interest among cinephiles elsewhere.</p>
<p>The blockbuster adapted from a namesake novella by Chinese author Liu Cixin is now the second-highest-grossing Chinese-made movie of all time, which continues to dominate primetime slots at cineplexes nationwide.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-314952" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/283202R4.0.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/283202R4.0.jpg 1200w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/283202R4.0-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></p>
<figure id="attachment_314953" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314953" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/125384.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="653" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/125384.jpg 1280w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/125384-768x392.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stills from The Wandering Earth. Photos: Handouts</figcaption></figure>
<p>Xinhua reported that critical response to the movie, after its US premiere at a selected number of cinemas in New York and Chicago, was generally positive.</p>
<p>The film also has had a limited release in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. On film rating site Rotten Tomatoes, the movie earned a 67% critics rating and 89% audience score.</p>
<p>Netflix gave no date for releasing the film, but offered to translate the dialogue into 28 languages for its global subscribers in almost 190 countries and regions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Netflix is committed to providing entertainment lovers with access to a wide variety of global content,&#8221; said Jerry Zhang, manager of content acquisition at Netflix. &#8220;With its high-quality production and story-telling, we believe that <em>The Wandering Earth</em> will be loved by sci-fi fans around the world.&#8221;</p>
<p>Some Chinese netizens said the Netflix deal was “good news” and they were proud that a Chinese film was hitting the international stage.</p>
<p>“Now it’s foreigners’ turn to watch subtitles,” one said.</p>
<p>The big-budget science-fiction thriller about an audacious plan of mankind to propel the Earth out of the solar system and maneuver its trajectory to avoid a collusion with Jupiter has also been hailed by the Communist Party&#8217;s Publicity Department as well as cadres in charge of ideological education as a commercially successful production that promoted &#8220;China&#8217;s core values such as collectivism, patriotism and family love&#8221; in front of a global audience.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinas-sci-fi-blockbuster-questions-earths-future/">China’s sci-fi blockbuster questions Earth’s future</a></p>
Russian President warns West that deploying missile launchers in Europe could ignite ‘tit for tat’ response
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/putin-rattles-sabre-as-nuclear-pact-collapses/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/putin-rattles-sabre-as-nuclear-pact-collapses/<p class="p1"><span class="s1">President Putin’s <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/messages/59863"><span class="s2">state of the nation address</span></a> to the Federal Assembly in Moscow this week was an extraordinary affair. </span><span class="s1">While </span><span class="s1">heavily focused on domestic social and economic development, Putin noted, predictably, the US decision to pull out of the <span class="s3">Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and clearly outlined the red lines in regard to possible consequences of the move.</span></span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">It would be naïve to believe that there would not be a serious counterpunch to the possibility of the US deploying launchers “suitable for using Tomahawk missiles” in Poland and Romania, only a 12-minute flight away from Russian territory. </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Putin cut to the chase: &#8220;This is a very serious threat to us. In this case, we will be forced – I want to emphasize this – forced to take tit-for-tat steps.&#8221; </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Later that night, many hours after his address, Putin detailed what was construed in the US, once again, as a threat.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">“Is there some hard ideological confrontation now similar to what was [going on] during the Cold War? There is none. We surely have mutual complaints, conflicting approaches to some issues, but that is no reason to escalate things to a stand-off on the level of the Caribbean crisis of the early 1960s”. </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">This was a direct reference to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 when President Kennedy confronted USSR’s Nikita Khrushchev over missiles deployed off the US mainland. </span></p>
<p class="p4"><span class="s1">The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, has discreetly assured that conference calls with the Pentagon are proceeding as scheduled, every week, and that this bilateral dialogue is “working”. </span></p>
<p class="p4"><span class="s1">In parallel, tests of state-of-the-art Russian weaponry such as the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile and the hypersonic Khinzal also proceed, alongside mass production of the hypersonic Avangard. </span><span class="s4">The first regiment of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces will get the Avangard before the end of this year. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And then there’s the <a href="http://tass.com/defense/1045757"><span class="s2">Tsircon</span></a>, a hypersonic missile capable of reaching US command centers in a mere five minutes – leaving the whole range of NATO military assets exposed. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">What Putin meant in his address about Russia targeting “centers for decision-making” was fundamentally related to NATO, not the American mainland. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And once again, it’s crucial to underline that none of these disturbing developments mean that Russia would engage in a pre-emptive strike against the deployment of US missiles in Eastern Europe. Putin was adamant that there’s no need for it. Moreover, Russian nuclear doctrine forbids any sort of pre-emptive strikes, not to mention a nuclear first strike.</span></p>
<h4 class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>House of the Rising (Nuclear) Sun </b></span></h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">To allow this new paradigm to sink in, I went on a long walk across Zamoskvorechye – “behind the Moskva river” – stopping on the way back in front of the Biblioteka Lenina to pay my respects to the Grandmaster Dostoevsky. And then it hit me; this was entirely connected to what had happened the day before. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The day before Putin’s state of the union address I went to visit Alexander Dugin at his office in the deliciously Soviet, art nouveau building of the former Central Post Office. Dugin, a political analyst and strategist with a refined philosophical mind, is vilified in Washington as Putin’s ideologue. He has also been targeted by US sanctions.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I was greeted in the lobby by his multi-talented daughter Daria – active in everything from philosophy and music to geopolitics. Dugin was being interviewed by RAI correspondent Sergio Paini. After the wrap-up, the three of us immediately engaged in a discussion on populism, Salvini, the Italian politician, and the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests in France), in Italian. (Dugin is fluent in many languages).</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Then we picked up on what we had left behind, when I was in Moscow last December and talked extensively with Daria. Dugin was in Shanghai teaching an international relations course at Fudan University (see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=36&amp;v=kgQ9tnam4Ac"><span class="s2">here</span></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVJuPDs4FHU"><span class="s2">here</span></a>), and gave lectures at Tsinghua and Peking University. He returned quite impressed by Chinese academia’s interest in populism, plus German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the Gilets Jaunes, as well as the evolving paths of Russia and China&#8217;s strategic partnership.</span></p>
<h4>Eurasia debate</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">So inevitably we delved into Eurasianism – and strategies towards Eurasian integration. Dugin sees China applying a sort of remixed Spykman outlook to the “Road” component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is maritime, along the rimland. He privileges the “Belt” component, which is overland, with one of the main corridors going through Russia via the upgraded Trans-Siberian railway. I tend to view it as a mix of Halford Mackinder, the famed English academic, and the influential American political scientist Nicholas Spykman; China advancing on the West, simultaneously in the heartland and the rimland.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Dugin’s office has the atmosphere of a revolving think tank. I was trying to inform him on how Brazil – under the &#8216;leadership&#8217; of Steve Bannon, who walks and talks like he runs the Bolsonaro presidential clan – has been dragged to the frontline in the US in contrast to the Eurasian integration chessboard. Suddenly, none other than <a href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/02/15/establishment-last-roll-of-dice-what-will-become-europe.html"><span class="s2">Alastair Crooke</span></a></span><span class="s1"> drops in. Serendipity or synchronicity? </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Alastair, with his consummate diplomatic flair, is, of course, one of the world’s foremost experts in the Middle East and Europe – and much else. He&#8217;s in Moscow as a guest for one of the Valdai Club’s famed discussions, on the <a href="http://valdaiclub.com/events/own/middle-east-new-stage-valdai/"><span class="s2">Middle East</span></a>, along with key figures from Syria and Iran.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Soon the three of us are engaged in an absorbing conversation on the soul of Islam, the purity of Sufism, the Muslim Brotherhood (those fabled friends of the Clinton machine), what President Erdogan and the Qataris are really up to, and the sterility – intellectual and spiritual – of the Wahhabi House of Saud and the Emirates. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We tend to agree that discussions like this, going on in Moscow – and in Tehran, Istanbul, Shanghai – would greatly profit from the presence of a progressive Steve Bannon, capable of organizing and promoting a running, non-ideological debate on multipolarity. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">A day before Putin’s stark reminder against any slip towards nuclear Armageddon, we were also discussing the post-INF world, but with emphasis on post-Mackinder (and post-Brzezinski) Eurasian integration. And that includes Russian and Chinese intellectual elites acutely aware that they can’t afford to be isolated by American hyperpower.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I walked Alastair to his hotel, past a gloriously illuminated Bolshoi. I kept going, and as Lubyanka disappeared from view, a sidewalk busker was playing &#8216;House of the Rising Sun&#8217;, the Animals version. In Russian. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Hopefully, it will not feature a rising nuclear sun.</span></p>
The blackmailer, a co-worker in Dubai, threatened to publish photos of the Filipino having sex with another man
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-blackmailed-filipino-who-later-killed-himself/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-blackmailed-filipino-who-later-killed-himself/<p class="p2">A Pakistani man was sentenced to six months in jail for blackmailing a Filipino colleague who later committed suicide in Dubai.</p>
<p class="p2">The Pakistani man threatened the Filipino that he would share photos of him performing oral sex on another man, who was also a co-worker. He threatened to circulate the photos though WhatsApp unless the Filipino agreed to give him an iPhone 5, <a href="https://gulfnews.com/uae/crime/pakistani-sentenced-to-six-months-for-blackmail-1.62071018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gulf News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p2">In July 2017, the Filipino reportedly hung himself in the bathroom of a trading company’s accommodation unit at Al Muhaisnah, leaving behind a handwritten suicide note, in which he asked for the Pakistani man to be arrested.</p>
<p class="p2">During interrogation, the accused admitted that he had threatened the victim with circulating the photos. Police said the blackmailer admitted that he knew that the Filipino was gay and had been involved in an affair with a male colleague.</p>
<p class="p2">Prosecutors charged the man with misusing WhatsApp to blackmail the Filipino by circulating his photos. The Pakistani man was handed a six-month jail term and will be deported after serving his sentence.</p>
<p class="p2">Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/12/article/gay-man-took-his-own-life-during-alleged-blackmail-attempt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gay man took his own life during alleged blackmail attempt</a></p>
Activists advise citizens to get rid of aluminum cans properly
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/cobra-stuck-in-beer-can-rescued-in-india/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/cobra-stuck-in-beer-can-rescued-in-india/<p>A venomous cobra that had become trapped inside a beer can in India was rescued by a professional reptile handler. On Tuesday, snake catcher Mirza Mohammad was called to a neighborhood in Bhadrak, Odisha state, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/02/20/Venomous-cobra-rescued-from-beer-can/6351550691463/?rc_fifo=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UPI</a> reported.</p>
<p>Witnesses caught the cobra on video, which shows the snake catcher cutting through the beer can with a knife while using a glove to get the attention of the venomous reptile.</p>
<p>As the snake bites the glove, Mirza is able to capture it safely and place it in a plastic container. The snake was subsequently released in a forest area far from residents.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/content/534155/soft-drink-cans-turn-death.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Local wildlife activists</a> have advised residents to dispose of used aluminum cans properly to prevent snakes from getting stuck in them. The tightness of cans can often prove fatal for snakes as they are unable to get themselves free. Openings of the cans are usually sharp as well, which can injure them.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qB-hjOca69k" width="540" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
A new ‘Smart Card’ with a consumption limit is the latest attempt by the government to ease worsening shortages
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/syria-rations-gasoline-for-first-time-in-history/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/syria-rations-gasoline-for-first-time-in-history/<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Long queues are obstructing traffic in the city of Damascus, as the Syrian government begins to ration gasoline for the first time in the country’s history. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The government has introduced a new “Smart Card”, fixing consumption at 450 liters of gasoline per month for every automobile, no matter the size. As of this month, only smart card holders will be able to fill up their cars at the current price of gasoline, which is 4,500 Syrian pounds per tank ($9 USD). Although this rate is subsidized by the state, it marks a 1,000% increase from the pre-2011 cost, when gasoline tanks could be filled for just 500 Syrian pounds. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Before the war, 500 Syrian pounds was equivalent to $10, so the price of a tank in terms of foreign currency has scarcely changed. However, the population still make their living in Syrian pounds, not US dollars. What once was an affordable cost is now out of the reach of many. Moreover, gasoline was always available in a country that produced 385,000 barrels of oil per day.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Those who do not obtain a Smart Card (which is free) or fail to renew it periodically will have to purchase gas at a so-called “free rate” that is yet to be set by Syrian authorities but is expected to be double the current price. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>Gas station gunplay</b></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The Smart Card has triggered ridicule and spite among Syrians who feel that the state is only complicating their lives and adding insult to injury with its ill management of economic affairs.</span></p>
<p>But people are nonetheless working to get hold of them.</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">“My neighbor waited for 6-hours to get her card” said Ibtissam, a resident of the West Mezzeh district of Damascus, where one of the new smart card offices is located. “I paid one of the local janitors 10,000 Syrian pounds ($20) to stand in line on my behalf. I have work and cannot afford such a wait; I am already spending long hours at the gas station.”</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Syrian actors responded with a short comedy in mid-February, currently going viral on social media networks, depicting characters with smart cards for tomatoes, coffee, and even for hookahs (water pipes). The sketch wrapped up with a scene showing a patient at a hospital in Damascus, denied medical assistance because he did not have a “smart card for oxygen.” </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The smart card is only the latest attempt by the Syrian authorities to combat gasoline shortages resulting from losses of territory, mismanagement, and international sanctions. Syria was slapped with European Union sanctions eight years ago, and in November of last year, felt the impact of US sanctions on Iran, its sole wartime supplier of gasoline.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">In early 2017, Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis tried to counter the crisis by forcing the public sector to reduce its consumption of gasoline by 50%. Exceptions were given only to ambulances and vehicles operated by the Ministry of Defense. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Back then, gas station entry was regulated, with special days for odd numbered license plates, and others for even numbers. That did not work, due to the high number of people who refused to go away—regardless of their license plates—threatening gas station attendants with guns. The same scene is re-emerging today, as soldiers try to regulate gas stations, authorized to arrest attendants who fill up cars whose owners do not have a no smart card.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>Security raises demand</b></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The petroleum industry was once the pride and joy of the Syrian economy, and Syrians never experienced a chronic gas crisis. In 2010, oil sales generated $3.2 billion for the Syrian government, accounting to 25% of state revenue. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Over the course of the war that broke out in 2011, various armed factions seized control of key oil installations in the eastern provinces. The Islamic State group (ISIS) seized control of much of the country’s oil fields and used oil revenues to prop up its rule. But as the extremist group was forced to retreat, its militants burned oil fields in their wake, while others were bombed by US-led air strikes. By 2016, production had fallen to less than 0.05% of earlier levels. While the physical rule of ISIS is now down to a limited pocket of territory, it will take years to repair damaged installations. Production is currently at an all-time low of 14,000 barrels per day, which does not even</span><span class="s2"> meet domestic needs</span><span class="s1">. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">In addition, the vast majority of</span><span class="s2"> oil wells are currently under the control of Kurdish-led forces, including the largest, the al-Omar field which has a capacity of 80,000 barrels per day. The Kurds also control the second-largest, al-Tanak, which is capable of producing 40,000 barrels per day. Smaller, nearby fields are held by the Syrian military.</span></p>
<p>During the first six years of the conflict, Syrians did not feel the brunt of gasoline supplies being down, as travel had ground almost to a standstill.<span class="s1"> Entire swathes of land had been seized by the armed opposition and were thus avoided. Travel in government-controlled areas was minimal, as highways were unsafe or out-of-service. In the capital, few people went out after sunset, fearing lawlessness on the streets and mortars from the countryside around Damascus. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">From 2013 to 2018, the government provided gasoline to four cities only, creating sufficiency despite the shortage, but by mid-2018, the area under state control had almost doubled, as entire cities and towns were re-taken by the army. Those areas included the sprawling eastern suburbs of Damascus, Daraa in the south, Palmyra in the isolated desert interior, and Deir ez-Zour on the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Syrians who remain in the country are now relying on the government to ensure gasoline is supplied to all of these areas at affordable, subsidized prices. This is coupled with the additional demand for electricity and water, as well as salaries for police stations, hospitals, and schools. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Gasoline</span><span class="s1"> purchases and subsidies now cost the state 4 billion Syrian pounds (US$8 million) per day, according to government figures, the lion’s share of which goes to Damascus, which consumes 1 million liters per day. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">In mid-2018, new challenges emerged after the Russian government, a key ally of Damascus, announced an ambitious project to bring home 2.8 million Syrian refugees from neighboring countries, peddling a line that the war in Syria was coming to a close and that it was time for them to return and join the reconstruction process.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"> Most of these refugees hail from parts of the country that have been partially or fully destroyed. They will only come back if basic services are restored. </span></p>
A coordinated effort between Indonesian and global officials led to the capture of an illegal vessel hunted for many years
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/notorious-fishing-vessel-captured-off-sumatra/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/notorious-fishing-vessel-captured-off-sumatra/<p>An illegal fishing vessel that had been wanted by international authorities for years was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190213-the-dramatic-hunt-for-the-fish-pirates-exploiting-our-seas">finally captured</a> off the Indonesian island of Sumatra earlier this month.</p>
<p>The &#8216;Andrey Dolgov&#8217; – a 570-ton vessel that is 54 meters long – was caught near Weh Island, off the northern tip of Sumatra, not far from the Malacca Strait, by Indonesian authorities.</p>
<p>Naval officers who boarded the vessel found a Russian captain with five Russian or Ukrainian officers, plus 20 Indonesians. The latter members of the crew claimed they had no idea the vessel was operating illegally and were treated like human trafficking victims who were duped into working onboard.</p>
<p>The captain was a Russian man named Aleksandr Matveev, who was convicted of illegal fishing, sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 200 million rupiah (US$14,225). The other officers were deported back to Russia and Ukraine.</p>
<p>Built in Japan in 1985, this fishing boat has had a long list of names. Its most recent owner was a Russian based in Korea, who is believed to have links with organized crime.</p>
<p>The vessel has been confiscated by Indonesian authorities, who have taken a tough stance against illegal fishing in recent years. Groups monitoring illegal fishing suspect the Dolgov had been operating illegally in oceans around the world for at least 10 years.</p>
<p>Andrea Aditya Salim, one of the unit members in charge of capturing the boat, said the crew insisted that they were not fishing illegally and claimed their engine and fishing equipment were malfunctioning.</p>
<p>But after a search of the boat, 600 fishing nets spanning about 30 kilometers were found – equipment which is prohibited, according to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).</p>
<p>The operation to catch the boat, which had come to the attention of international agencies several years ago, started off east Africa several weeks earlier.</p>
<p>The vessel had previously been seized in China and Mozambique but was able to win legal battles in those countries. Owners often utilized loopholes in maritime laws and corrupt officials to avoid problems.</p>
<p>Former operators of the boat had been accused of money laundering and forced labor. But it was reportedly a lucrative business.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, the vessel allegedly made about 702 million rupiah ($50 million) from their illegal fishing. However, modern technology and greater international cooperation has made it harder for these vessels to continue to operate as they have in the past.</p>
<p>Indonesia, under the strong leadership of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, has seized and destroyed 488 illegal fishing vessels over the past five years.</p>
<p>And Pudjiastuti recently decided to convert the Dolgov so it can be part of the national fisheries enforcement fleet. So it could be renamed yet again.</p>
Consumption of the drug is illegal in China, but the country is well-placed to meet global demand
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/yunnan-ready-to-cash-in-on-cannabis-boom/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/yunnan-ready-to-cash-in-on-cannabis-boom/<p>China has licensed a massive cannabis farm covering almost 100 square kilometers in southwestern Yunnan province as it prepares to cash in on growing demand from countries decriminalizing the drug. It is believed China already supplies 50% of global cannabis output.</p>
<p>Conba Group, a publicly-listed pharmaceutical company, will cultivate three separate plantations, according to the National Business Daily, and last month reached agreement with CannaAcubed Pte for the planting, extraction, processing and packaging of industrial cannabis.</p>
<p>The licensing agreement allows cultivation for both industrial and medical uses, and Conba said in a bourse filing that it had already signed seed supply contracts with domestic and overseas suppliers. China permits cultivation of cannabis only for traditional medicines and textiles: most is of industrial hemp quality, high in fiber and with only a low amount of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).</p>
<figure id="attachment_314907" style="width: 1440px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314907" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/olykeYEgniTIvlYZqtHqnZg3nODDAi42EcJSVxHCUlc.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="850" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/olykeYEgniTIvlYZqtHqnZg3nODDAi42EcJSVxHCUlc.jpg 1440w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/olykeYEgniTIvlYZqtHqnZg3nODDAi42EcJSVxHCUlc-768x453.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A cannabis plantation in Yunnan. Photo: WeChat</figcaption></figure>
<p>Nonetheless, China is in a better position than any other country to meet the expected upsurge in demand as the consumption of cannabis for medicinal and recreational use becomes more widespread. The only nation known to have scientifically researched and tested cannabis in field conditions, China held 309 of the 606 patents filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization as of 2017, the latest available figures.</p>
<p>It has ideal growing conditions in subtropical Yunnan and has been cultivating the drug since at least 10,000 BC for both industrial products and consumption. No other country boasts so many scientists and processing factories with experience in cannabis applications.</p>
<p>But there is a catch. Handling of the drug in any form in China without approval is strictly prohibited, and Beijing may not want to risk switching to psychoactive strains if it could encourage local consumption. Chinese criminal law states that “individuals who smuggle, traffic, transport or manufacture narcotic drugs are sentenced to either 15 years of prison, life imprisonment or death, and suffer confiscation of property”.</p>
<p>Another problem is that the crop traditionally has been associated with the minority Muslim Uyghur population, who are being subjugated by the central government and have responded with insurgency attacks. Although crops are now being planted elsewhere, the Uyghur are recognized as having the longest history of cultivation.</p>
<p>The licensing of a farm covering 100 square kilometers is a strong indicator that China intends to put its economic interests first in what is likely to become a multi billion-dollar industry within the next decade.</p>
The government’s refusal to sanction airlifts to stranded troops may have contributed to the high casualties
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/modi-inaction-questioned-after-kashmir-attack/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/modi-inaction-questioned-after-kashmir-attack/<p>Details emerging days after the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/?_=7136446">Pulwama attack</a> in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on Valentines&#8217;s Day reveal that there were multiple failures on the part of the government that may have added to the death toll when Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operatives killed 42 Indian police personnel.</p>
<p>Since February 4, the weather in Kashmir had turned for the worse, leading to the blocking of the Banihal Pass, the sole road route from the Jammu region into the Kashmir Valley through the Pir Panjal mountain ranges. Police personnel from the federal Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were in the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/">Channi Rama transit camp</a> in Jammu, waiting for the weather to clear before they could be transported into the Kashmir Valley.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have a capacity of 1000 personnel in the Jammu camp, but the number had risen to 2500 due to the inclement weather,&#8221; a senior CRPF official told Asia Times.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, senior CRPF officials posted in Kashmir began to ask for the airlifting of troops using fixed wing aircraft. Multiple top police sources confirmed that the Inspector General of Police of the CRPF, in charge of Kashmir operations, wrote to the federal ministry of home affairs (MHA) seeking aircraft to airlift the stranded troops from Jammu.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314860" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314860" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WhatsApp-Image-2019-02-21-at-3.47.00-PM.jpeg" alt="" width="780" height="654" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WhatsApp-Image-2019-02-21-at-3.47.00-PM.jpeg 780w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WhatsApp-Image-2019-02-21-at-3.47.00-PM-768x644.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Letter written by Inspector General of Police of the CRPF, in charge of Kashmir operations. Source: Twitter</figcaption></figure>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;His written requests were turned down by the MHA,&#8221; the officials said.</p>
<p>But on February 15, a day after the attack, the MHA swung into action and managed to get the Indian Air Force (IAF) to start airlifting police personnel from the Jammu sector.</p>
<p>&#8220;At least four flights by the IAF&#8217;s C-17 Globemaster and the IL-76 transport aircraft have lifted the personnel of the CRPF and the Border Security Force (BSF) since the attack&#8221;. The Globemaster and the IL-76 can each carry at least 130 troops without any cargo at a time. &#8220;Had the backlog in the Jammu camp not gone up to 2500, the pressure to send them all out by a road convoy wouldn&#8217;t have been required,&#8221; a senior security official said.</p>
<p>In fact, S P Vaid, the former Director General of Police (DGP) of the Jammu and Kashmir state, who is now the transport commissioner, also raised the lack of airlift facilities.</p>
<p>&#8220;The transit alone takes a lot of time, especially when the roads are closed for weeks. This exposes the soldiers for a prolonged duration. I had proposed to airlift the jawans (soldiers) during (a) high-level security meeting of joint forces more than once, and also spoke about it to representatives of state and Union governments,&#8221; Vaid told <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/india/why-were-crpf-men-not-airlifted-costs-comparable-to-road-travel-former-jk-top-cop-2037295.html">News18</a>.</p>
<p>He also pointed out that as per calculations worked out when he was the DGP of the state, the costs of air travel were &#8220;comparable&#8221; to road transport.</p>
<p>The lack of bullet proof buses for the CRPF in Kashmir has also drawn considerable criticism. &#8220;The government has money for statues, but not for the security forces,&#8221; one senior official remarked.</p>
<p>Asia Times sent a detailed questionnaire to Bharat Bhushan Babu, the official spokesperson of the MHA, detailing the lack of permission for airlifts to the CRPF and BSF before the Pulwama attack. However, Bhushan did not respond to specific queries about the CRPF&#8217;s request for airlift due to inclement weather. The story will be updated if and when he responds.</p>
<h4>Missing Prime Minister</h4>
<p>On February 20, the principal opposition Congress party launched a salvo against the Narendra Modi government for its failure to prevent the Pulwama attack. The party&#8217;s spokesperson, R S Surjewala alleged that <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/politics/pm-modi-continued-shooting-for-documentary-in-corbett-after-pulwama-attack-congress-2044065.html">the prime minister was still busy</a> shooting a documentary at the Jim Corbett National Park even hours after the attack. He also released pictures from the shoot where the prime minister is seen in the forest and taking a boat ride.</p>
<p>Embarrassed by these revelations at a time when the prime minister is on a visit to South Korea, government sources scrambled to respond and stated that &#8220;there was no connectivity&#8221;, which is why the prime minister could not be alerted.</p>
<p>However, observers have pointed out that the reaction of the prime minister and the union cabinet left much to be desired.</p>
<p>Following the attack, the government called for an all-party meeting, but the prime minister chose to skip it and headed off to the inauguration of India&#8217;s new, indigenously-developed train engine.</p>
<p>This was followed by a political rally raising questions about the government&#8217;s focus on the upcoming general elections rather than addressing a national crisis. As tempers began to rise across India, and Kashmiris began to be targeted by enraged mobs, the prime minister&#8217;s silence came in for criticism from the opposition parties.</p>
<p>After the September 2016 attack on an Indian Army brigade headquarters camp in Uri, Kashmir, that killed 19 soldiers, the government sanctioned commando raids into several parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.</p>
<p>These were christened as &#8220;surgical strikes&#8221; and used extensively in the subsequent election campaign in India&#8217;s largest state, Uttar Pradesh. The BJP then won a handsome victory in the state.</p>
<p>Early this year, a movie was released on the so-called &#8220;surgical strikes&#8221;, which critics pointed out, had tremendous propaganda value for the BJP ahead of the general elections slated for April this year.</p>
<p>A senior army official told Asia Times, &#8220;But this has limited our options and the massive political hype after the raids has now created expectations that are impossible to match. The government will have to take some kinetic action against Pakistan to satiate public anger in an election year.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Leadership wiped out?</h4>
<p>Earlier this week, an encounter between the Indian security forces and suspected JeM militants led to a fierce encounter that raged for nearly a day. At a <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pulwama-attack-have-eliminated-top-leadership-of-jem-in-the-valley-says-army-5590597/">press conference</a> held after the operation, Lieutenant General K J S Dhillon, commanding the Srinagar-based 15 Corps claimed that the JeM leadership in the Valley had been &#8220;wiped out&#8221;.</p>
<p>Dhillon also claimed that one of those killed in the encounter was a man called Kamran, also known as <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/video/indian-forces-kill-pulwama-terror-attack-mastermind-ghazi-rasheed-1458646-2019-02-18">Rasheed Ghazi</a>.</p>
<p>However, multiple sources in India&#8217;s security establishment say that they have not been able to confirm whether the man killed is indeed Ghazi.</p>
<p>According to intelligence reports, Ghazi is a Pakistani and an explosives expert, one of four key JeM operatives who had infiltrated into the Kahsmir Valley from Pakistan last year to carry out terror strikes.</p>
<p>One of them was identified as Usman, the son of JeM founder Masood Azhar&#8217;s eldest brother Ibrahim. Usman and another key JeM operative were killed by Indian security forces in October last year, and the February 14 attack in Pulwama is believed to be in retaliation to that operation.</p>
<p>However, security officials also point out that a fourth key operative identified as Ismail Ibrahim is still at large, indicating that the JeM leadership in the Kashmir Valley is still present.</p>
<p>A detailed questionnaire sent to official spokesperson of the Indian Army Colonel Aman Anand seeking clarifications, did not yield a response.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/unsc-resolution-on-pulwama-contained-language-proposed-by-india-sources-5595942/">UN security council passed a resolution</a> blaming the JeM for the Pulwama attack and has called upon Pakistan to take action against it. Interestingly, while China continues to block India&#8217;s efforts to globally designate JeM founder Azhar as a &#8220;global terrorist&#8221;, it did sign the UNSC resolution.</p>
Jennie Bagaconza was recognized for her work in developing countries around the world
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-nurse-given-us-humanitarian-award/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-nurse-given-us-humanitarian-award/<p class="p1">A Filipino nurse in Illinois, USA, has received the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.</p>
<p class="p1">Jennie Bagaconza, who is a nurse clinician in the Bariatric Center at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, was recognized for providing humanitarian aid in developing areas including the Philippines, Bolivia, Guatemala, Indiana and Africa, the Daily Herald reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The award honors employees and physicians from across the Northwestern Medicine health system who best exemplified the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. and demonstrated a positive impact in the community.</p>
<p class="p1">“Being born in a third world country, (I was born and raised in the Philippines), you see poor people, hungry people. I volunteered after graduating from nursing school in a local clinic before I came to the United States and it all evolved from there,” Bagaconza said.</p>
<p class="p1">The Filipina nurse joins volunteer medical missions and collects clothing and other goods to donate to orphanages in the Philippines. She also volunteers at Poor Household of God, a foundation that reaches out to the poor in Eastern Samar in the Philippines.</p>
<p class="p1">“In 2011, I started my first mission trip to the Philippines. I did it for three years in the Philippines, then I extended (my stay). If I’m going to help, I’m not only going to help people in the Philippines, I want to help other people too,” she said.</p>
<p class="p1">Bagaconza was among five who were presented with awards for their contributions and for embodying Dr. King’s legacy of humanitarianism. The Humanitarian Award has been awarded to 77 employees and 29 physicians since it was launched in 1979.</p>
The Hong Kong driver allegedly demanded a $382 cleaning fee after two female passengers threw up in his taxi
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taxi-driver-drunk-passengers-exchange-blows/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taxi-driver-drunk-passengers-exchange-blows/<p>A video of a dispute between a Hong Kong taxi driver and two passengers who reportedly threw up inside his taxi quickly went viral after they were seen struggling and exchanging blows in Tseung Kwan O, the New Territories.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/100010154559287/videos/1618130251868778/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The video showed two female passengers and a taxi driver</a> in an argument over money that quickly turned into a physical fight, Oriental Daily reported.</p>
<p>It was understood that, on the journey from the Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district in Central Hong Kong to Tseung Kwan O, the women threw up in the back seat of the taxi. The angry taxi driver then demanded a cleaning fee of HK$3,000 (US$382), which the women rejected, claiming they had already cleaned up the mess.</p>
<p>All three got out of the vehicle, and a discussion became an argument that turned into a fight. According to the video, the driver said the women did not pay the fare. The driver and the women were seen exchanging blows before he grabbed one of the women’s hands and refused to let go.</p>
<p>The women screamed loudly and called the police.</p>
<p>The incident reportedly happened a month ago, but that the video clip was sent to the newspaper on Thursday.</p>
<p>To San-tong, representative of the Motor Transport Workers General Union said the cleaning fee the taxi driver demanded was unreasonable.</p>
<p>To said that when passengers vomit inside a taxi, the driver will usually request a cleaning fee of between HK$200 and HK$300. However, To pointed out, there no law that covers such an incident.</p>
Golden Buzzer wins Philip Galit, from the Philippines, a place in the semi-finals
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hand-shadow-artist-excels-in-asias-got-talent/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hand-shadow-artist-excels-in-asias-got-talent/<p class="p1">A Filipino hand shadow artist advanced to the semi-finals of Asia’s Got Talent after his act received the Golden Buzzer.</p>
<p class="p1">Philip Galit, also known as Shadow Ace, wowed the audience and judges with a shadow play done solely with his hands. Galit said there were constant blackouts in his neighborhood during his childhood years, and so he would entertain himself with a candle, making shadows on the wall, <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/02/21/19/watch-pinoy-hand-shadow-artist-wows-asias-got-talent-becomes-golden-buzzer-act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABS-CBN News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Galit’s performance had the audience and judges laughing and impressed them with how he transformed his hands into shapes of people. The performance not only showcased Galit’s talent, but also his comedic timing.</p>
<p class="p1">Judge Anggun, an Indonesian singer, said she was glad Galit came to the show. Jay Park added that Galit’s performance was by far the best shadow act he had ever seen. Judge David Foster agreed, saying, “I tell you, I forgot that they were hands. They were people to me!”</p>
<p class="p1">As the judges were going to give their votes, the show’s hosts Alan Wong and Justin Bratton went to the judges&#8217; table and pushed the Golden Buzzer, which automatically advanced Galit to the semi-finals of the competition.</p>
<p class="p1">Prior to joining Asia’s Got Talent, Galit was among the semi-finalists on the fifth season of Pilipinas Got Talent, the Philippines version of the famous talent show. Galit has a chance to win the third season of Asia’s Got Talent and a grand prize of US$100,000.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eU41kkug7yk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
Formosat-7 satellites to be put into orbit atop SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy on a date yet to be decided
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taiwan-to-launch-more-multi-purpose-satellites/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taiwan-to-launch-more-multi-purpose-satellites/<p>Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has hinted that the island&#8217;s new generation of satellites, the Formosat-7 constellation, will bolster national security on the strength of advanced antennae, sensors and cameras that can generate vast amounts of data for weather forecasting as well as reconnaissance. Formosa was the ancient Portuguese name given to Taiwan.</p>
<p>The Formosat-7 project is earmarked as the biggest Taiwan-US space technology collaboration, with the US contributing radio occultation solutions and radio frequency beacons among other technologies. The new satellites are designed to gauge weather and atmospheric conditions for national defense, emergency response and natural disaster relief operations, according to the island&#8217;s Central News Agency.</p>
<p>The Formosat-5 &#8211; Taiwan&#8217;s first locally-produced, remote sensing satellite units and the island&#8217;s first spacecraft to enter space, was catapulted into the Sun-synchronous orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base near Los Angeles in August 2017.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314842" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314842" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F7-11th-March-57-med-res.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="559" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F7-11th-March-57-med-res.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F7-11th-March-57-med-res-768x537.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An assembly plant for the Formosat-7 satellites. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_314845" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314845" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/14086663-b612-4e7b-b283-6f0b1803b4f8.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (center) inspected the island&#8217;s National Space Agency on Thursday. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>Now the seventh generation of the series, dubbed the world’s most accurate thermometer in space, is expected to collect three to four times more data than the Formosat-5 satellites.</p>
<p>The new satellites will be transported to the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida by the island&#8217;s flag carrier China Airlines. From there it will be launched by a Falcon Heavy rocket, currently the world&#8217;s most powerful heavy-lift launch vehicle. A specific launch date has yet to be confirmed, with SpaceX blaming scheduling delays on unresolved technical issues.</p>
<p>The Taiwanese leader inspected the island&#8217;s National Space Organization on Thursday, one day after her mainland counterpart Xi Jinping gave a presidential namecheck to the team behind China&#8217;s <em>Chang&#8217;e</em>-4 lunar probe and rover which marked man&#8217;s first ever successful mission to the dark side of the moon, in early January.</p>
<p>Taiwan has also set eyes on the moon in a future space program to launch a lunar probe that will put it among the ranks of countries that have sent spacecraft to the earth&#8217;s natural satellite.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s technological rivalry with China has thus entered a space age, despite the island not having its own launch site. Some observers also believe that delays to the Formosat-7&#8217;s space mission may be evidence of Beijing&#8217;s pull, as they say SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has to curry favor with Beijing for the sake of his Tesla factory in Shanghai.</p>
<p>The chief of Taiwan&#8217;s space agency also told reporters that SpaceX would not be the solo contractor and the agency would open an international tender for future launches.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s future space program also encompasses eight high-resolution remote sensing satellites as well as two synthetic aperture radar satellites.</p>
The minimum temperature in rural areas could drop to 14 or 15 degrees on Saturday and Sunday
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/monsoon-brings-cool-weekend-weather-to-hong-kong/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/monsoon-brings-cool-weekend-weather-to-hong-kong/<p>Hong Kong is expecting cool and wet weather over the weekend thanks to a monsoon and a humid maritime airstream expected to arrive in the next couple of days.</p>
<p>The minimum temperature in some districts in the New Territories, including Sheung Shui, Tin Shui Wai and Tai Po, will drop to 14 degrees and 15 degrees on Saturday and Sunday respectively, according to the regional weather forecast of the Hong Kong Observatory.</p>
<p>At 2pm on Friday, the temperature in the city was 24 degrees. Cool and windy weather with some rain is expected over the weekend. Things will then improve gradually over the next couple of days.</p>
<p>A warm and humid maritime airstream is also expected to affect the city and the coast of Guangdong starting from the middle of next week. Relative humidity will reach between 75% to 100%.</p>
Authorities extend the status for a third time since the tsunami five months ago
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/central-sulawesi-still-in-a-state-of-emergency/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/central-sulawesi-still-in-a-state-of-emergency/<p>Central Sulawesi province in Indonesia is maintaining its status of emergency five months after earthquakes, a tsunami and soil liquefactions rocked the area.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/21/five-months-after-tsunami-c-sulawesi-still-in-emergency.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Jakarta Post</a>, the emergency status was supposed to be lifted this week. However, authorities and government bodies got together for a meeting and decided to extend the emergency status until April 23.</p>
<p>Longki Djanggola, the governor of Central Sulawesi, said Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla called in the middle of the meeting and told the participants to make sure the temporary shelters provide electricity and clean water for citizens.</p>
<p>Kalla then agreed to extend the emergency status.</p>
<p>This marks the third time the emergency status has been extended. It was first issued on September 29, followed by an extension until December 25. The status was then extended again until February 23 before the latest extension.</p>
<p>Dedi Askary, Central Sulawesi representative of the National Commission on Human Rights, said continuous extensions did not change anything and only prolonged the suffering of the survivors living in 400 shelters.</p>
<p>As of now 488 of the targeted 699 shelters have been built in the Palu, Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Moutong areas. However, some of them do not have access to clean water and electricity.</p>
<p>In addition, 3,000 permanent houses are projected to be built in the Tondo Palu Timur subdistrict. The Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation is said to be backing the construction plans.</p>
<p>As of now, only 1,606 of the 4,402 people killed in the disasters have been identified and verified.</p>
The two deceased, both motorcyclists, have yet to be indentified
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hanoi-traffic-accident-kills-two/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hanoi-traffic-accident-kills-two/<p>A lethal collision in Hanoi, Vietnam yesterday killed two people and injured one other.</p>
<p>At around 10:40am on February 21, two trucks and and a bus were involved in a chain collision on Thang Long Boulevard in Hanoi, according to a traffic police report. Two motorcyclists who were caught between a truck and the bus died later in hospital, <a href="https://vietnamnews.vn/society/505784/two-killed-one-injured-in-collision-on-thang-long-boulevard.html#H5Wpjbk5EgSsSsDJ.97" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VN Express</a> reported.</p>
<p>Investigations uncovered that a truck turned left off of Thang Long Boulevard while heading towards Hoa Lac-Hanoi. The bus, which was traveling in the opposite direction, crashed into the truck, after which another truck/trailer rammed into the bus from behind. According to the police, the bus driver failed to pay attention to the road and the second truck driver was unable to control the speed of his vehicle, both of which contributed to the collision.</p>
<p>A female bus passenger also broke her leg in the accident. The two deceased have yet to be identified. The accident remains under investigation.</p>
There are 21 countries or regions to which deployment of Filipino workers is prohibited
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/manila-lists-countries-off-limits-to-workers/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/manila-lists-countries-off-limits-to-workers/<p class="p1">The Philippine government has reminded Filipino migrant workers of the countries that are deemed unsafe after partially lifting its ban on deployment to Libya.</p>
<p class="p1">The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>there are 21 countries or regions to which deployment of Filipino migrant workers is prohibited. They are Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Chechnya Republic, South Sudan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Ukraine, Chad, Cuba, North Korea, Haiti, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Palestine and Zimbabwe, <a href="https://www.manilatimes.net/22-countries-dangerous-to-ofws-poea/512798/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Manila Times</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said Filipino migrant workers, especially domestic workers, were at risk of facing abuse and maltreatment in these places.</p>
<p class="p1">“We are not deploying Filipino migrant workers to countries where there is high risk on the security of our workers, particularly where the alert level is big as certified by the Department of Foreign Affairs,” Olalia said.</p>
<p class="p1">Last September, Filipino migrant workers were banned from being deployed to Libya because of the escalation of violence in that North African country. However, the Philippine government partially lifted the ban in January and allowed those who had previously worked in Libya to return to the country and go back to their jobs.</p>
<p class="p1">Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/government-lifts-ban-allows-workers-to-go-back-to-libya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Government lifts ban, allows workers to go back to Libya</a></p>
The SUV swerved off the road, crashed into a tree and caught fire, killing all five occupants
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-family-killed-in-california-car-crash/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-family-killed-in-california-car-crash/<p class="p1">A Filipino family of four and a family friend were killed after their vehicle crashed into a tree in Delano, California. Last Saturday evening, Jalson Laguta, 46, was driving a sport-utility vehicle and was northbound on Highway 99 when it swerved off the road. After hitting a tree, the SUV caught fire, killing everyone on board, <a href="https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/family-identifies-five-killed-in-crash-in-delano" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BakersfieldNow</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The Kern county coroner’s office confirmed on Monday the identity of the casualties. Laguta was with his wife Arlene, their sons Caleb, 7, and Joseph, seven months, and a family friend, Danilo Salidad, 60.</p>
<p class="p1">According to relatives, the Laguta family were returning home from church when the accident happened. Family members want to bring their remains back home to the Philippines.</p>
<p class="p1">Police said the cause of the crash was still unknown, including whether drugs or alcohol were a factor. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident and running a routine vehicle check.</p>
The asylum seeker, a former domestic worker, faces a potential life sentence
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-in-hong-kong-court-for-drug-trafficking/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-in-hong-kong-court-for-drug-trafficking/<p>At the Eastern Magistrates Court in Hong Kong, a 38-year-old Filipina asylum seeker has pleaded guilty to trafficking drugs.</p>
<p>Sharon V.B, a former domestic worker who is now an asylum seeker, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking after police found her in possession of 12.55 grams of methamphetamine and 0.39 grams of marijuana, <a href="http://hongkongnews.com.hk/news/pinay-becomes-shabu-runner-in-hk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hongkongnews.com reported</a>.</p>
<p>The defendant was arrested last year outside the subdivided flat where she lived in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon.</p>
<p>Officers found the illegal drugs, with an estimated street value of HK$12,000 (US$1,529), in her jacket. They also found electronic scales and more resealable plastic bags inside the flat.</p>
<p>The prosecutor told the court that during the police investigation, the defendant initially claimed that the drugs were for her own consumption.</p>
<p>However, upon being shown the electronic scales and resealable packs, she refused to answer further questions and would not say where the drugs came from or where she was taking them at the time of her arrest.</p>
<p>The defendant reportedly sobbed uncontrollably in court as the details of the charges against her were read out.</p>
<p>When the interpreter asked her at least six times if she was pleading guilty, she continued crying until Judge Cheng Lim-Chi asked her again, and she said: “Okay.”</p>
<p>The judge later asked if her plea was voluntary and the former domestic worker answered that it was.</p>
<p>The defendant was remanded in jail pending sentencing in the High Court.</p>
<p>According to Hong Kong law, any person who traffics in a dangerous drug shall be liable upon conviction to a fine of HK$5 million and <span class="highlight_red">imprisonment for life.</span></p>
Authorities urge hikers to consult with doctors before embarking on strenuous hikes
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-falls-ill-while-hiking-in-hong-kong/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-falls-ill-while-hiking-in-hong-kong/<p>A Filipina was rushed to hospital after she lost consciousness while hiking with friends in a mountainous area of Hong Kong on Sunday. Rosalie V. Nituda, 42, a domestic worker in Hong Kong, has since undergone brain surgery, according to her employer and reports on <a href="http://www.sunwebhk.com/2019/02/pinoy-hikers-warned-as-ofw-in-coma.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sunwebhk.com</a>.</p>
<p>Her employer has reported the case to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO). Reports did not say where the hikers were walking at the time of the incident.</p>
<p>Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre is urging hikers to consult with doctors before embarking hikes to avoid similar incidents. “Mountain climbing is no walk in the park – one needs to be physically and mentally fit for it,” he said.</p>
<p>Torre said officers of POLO and from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will visit the worker in the hospital to check on her condition.</p>
China’s new aircraft carrier is due to be commissioned in October, but doubts remain over its quality
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/choppy-waters-as-carrier-nears-home-stretch/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/choppy-waters-as-carrier-nears-home-stretch/<p>China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier has now completed four sea trials since its maiden voyage in May last year, including exercises in December that mimicked battle conditions, but speculation is growing that it has not all been plain sailing.</p>
<p>Known at this point only as the Type 001A, the 55,000-ton vessel was launched in April 2017 and many observers have been impressed by the speed at which it has reached the test milestones that will take the carrier to eventual deployment. In the exercises in December, the vessel carried true-to-life replicas of J-16s and other shipborne warplanes, and its formal commission is now expected by October this year.</p>
<p>Yet while the carrier makes swift progress through the sea trials, questions are still being asked about its design and construction.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314372" style="width: 1486px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314372" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/chinesecarrieraftertrialrunatsea.jpg" alt="" width="1486" height="993" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/chinesecarrieraftertrialrunatsea.jpg 1486w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/chinesecarrieraftertrialrunatsea-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1486px) 100vw, 1486px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">China&#8217;s indigenous carrier the Type 001A was seen leaving her dock in Dalian before her maiden sea trial in May last year. Photo: Reuters</figcaption></figure>
<p>Rumors of quality issues began to swirl around the carrier after Sun Bo, general manager of China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC), fell foul of Beijing’s graft-busters just one month after its maiden voyage. CSIC was the state-owned corporation that built the vessel.</p>
<p>Military affairs columnist Andrei Chang also raised questions about potential defects in the carrier’s power system – like its sister ship, the Soviet-made <em>Liaoning</em>, the Type 001A is propelled by steam turbines – and a possible imbalance in water displacement that may lead to a tilted flight deck.</p>
<p>Chang noted that the carrier had returned to a dry dock at the CSIC’s Dalian Shipyard right after its first five-day sea trial, remaining there for as long as three months, after probably encountering technical issues that required extensive repair work. These included checks of its propulsion system and the bottom of the hull. He said it was not common for a vessel in mint condition to be brought in for repairs straight after its maiden voyage.</p>
<p>Media outlets reported at the time that the carrier had been returned to the same dry dock where it was built: the gates were closed, water drained out and dockyard workers went back in action.</p>
<p>Others believe that the carrier simply needed a good clean on its bulbous bow and other sections of the hull to get rid of barnacles and debris, while there is also speculation that it may have needed some touching up on surface areas, such as newer layers of anti-corrosion paint.</p>
<p>The fact that the carrier was able to go back to sea for further trials in August, with navigation and propulsion systems being pushed to the limit, could indicate that the early glitches have been largely overcome.</p>
<p>We may find out soon, as the next voyage – its first this year – is now thought to be imminent. With only a few trials likely remaining before the handover to the People’s Liberation Army, defense chiefs will be looking for calmer seas through to October.</p>
New Invincible-class vessel will replace city-state’s antiquated subs for patrolling nearby waters
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/singapore-launches-next-gen-submarine-in-germany/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/singapore-launches-next-gen-submarine-in-germany/<p>The Singapore Navy launched its first customized submarine, known as <em>Invincible,</em> in Germany this week in a ceremony attended by naval officials from both sides.</p>
<p>Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said the acquisition of new submarines was timely given various security challenges in the city-state&#8217;s maritime environment. The Singapore Navy played a key role in keeping the city-state&#8217;s sea lanes open, the minister said.</p>
<p>The <em>Invincible</em> is the first of four customized submarines designed for operations in Singapore&#8217;s shallow and busy tropical waters. The design of the vessels was influenced by the navy&#8217;s experience and expertise gained through more than two decades of operating submarines.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I_poBnLJMew?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Custom-built to Singapore&#8217;s needs, the new submarines will have longer endurance and higher payloads, according to the ministry.</p>
<p>After the launch, the <em>Invincible</em> will undergo a series of sea trials before actual delivery to Singapore in 2021. The remaining three submarines of the same class are also being built by ThyssenKrupp in Germany.</p>
<p>The new fleet will replace Singapore&#8217;s aging Archer-class and 1960s-vintage Challenger-class submarines, both of which were built in Sweden.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314451" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-314451" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/18feb19_nr2-e1550743544803.jpg" alt="" width="1588" height="1056" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/18feb19_nr2-e1550743544803.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/18feb19_nr2-e1550743544803-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/18feb19_nr2-e1550743544803-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The submarine&#8217;s launch ceremony was held in Germany, where it was made. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>Features of the new class include air-independent propulsion, as well as an &#8220;X&#8221; rudder to offer enhanced maneuverability in the congested and in places shallow waters around the city-state.</p>
<p>The initial deal for two of the submarines was valued at €1.6 billion (US$1.8 billion), including expenses for logistics and crew training. Now, it is estimated that Singapore will pay no less than €3 billion for all four of the subs.</p>
<p>Singapore and Germany signed an enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement last year, with submarine technologies and crew training highlighted as key areas of future cooperation.</p>
Conservative voices call for a ‘wireless moonshot’ ahead of the Mobile World Congress but skepticism abounds
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/this-scheme-might-be-trumps-answer-to-huawei/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/this-scheme-might-be-trumps-answer-to-huawei/<p>Ahead of the world’s largest gathering of mobile technology players in Barcelona next week, it appears that the US has all but thrown in the towel in its campaign to get allies to block China’s Huawei from building 5G (fifth-generation wireless) networks. President Donald Trump went so far as to tweet on Thursday morning that the US needs to win through competition, “not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies.”</p>
<p>To this point, a cadre of Trump administration allies is pushing for a new strategy to compete with Chinese firms in the deployment of next-generation wireless technology. The only problem is, experts say, the scheme is either a cynical business play or reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the race to build 5G networks.</p>
<p>Outside Trump adviser and former Republican congressman Newt Gingrich made the pitch in an editorial this week, warning that the US needs to roll out a policy of “open market access wireless.”</p>
<p>The US &#8220;needs to put it [this model] forward right now, before or during the meeting in Barcelona. If we don’t, this year’s Mobile World Congress risks turning into a victory lap for Huawei and Beijing,” Gingrich argued.</p>
<p>He acknowledged that the UK – a close US intelligence-sharing ally – will likely not ban Huawei gear from 5G networks. His fears contrast Huawei’s confidence ahead of the exhibition next week.</p>
<p>“If you are asking about how big our 5G lead is – you can ask our customers,” Huawei carrier business group president Ryan Ding <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252458017/MWC-2019-Huawei-claims-massive-lead-on-5G-readiness">said this week</a>. “I firmly believe that all our competitors now have usable 5G base stations. However, usable is different from good,” he added.</p>
<h4>America’s ‘wireless moonshot’?</h4>
<p>The open-access market approach to which Gingrich referred has been pushed for several years now by a small firm called Rivada, which also boasts the support of venture capitalist and Trump supporter Peter Thiel. While Gingrich agrees with Rivada chief executive officer Declan Ganley that the model “will increase return on new investment and accelerate investment in American 5G” and thus represent a “wireless moonshot,” industry experts express skepticism.</p>
<p>“Newt Gingrich is correct in that we need a different model from the Chinese. But that model is not an open-access experimental technology,” Doug Brake, director of spectrum policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), told Asia Times.</p>
<p>“What’s going on,” Brake suggested, “is [Rivada] has some technology that may or may not be pretty innovative but hasn’t exactly been proven out.… They have been working to now lobby federal spectrum users in an attempt to essentially become a middleman.</p>
<p>“I think this a pretty narrow advocacy attempt by a particular corporation,” Brake added.</p>
<p>The argument that Rivada’s Ganley makes is in essence that unlocking value by changing the pricing model of broadband spectrum will allow network operators to spend more on equipment, buying more expensive gear from Nokia, Ericsson or Samsung, which they would do for security reasons. According to his theory, this would help push Huawei out of the picture, as he suggested at an event on promoting US leadership in 5G at the Hudson Institute in November.</p>
<h4>Free-market strength vs China’s ‘shoddy equipment’</h4>
<p>This policy plays to America’s strengths, Ganley argued alongside another conservative advocate of the model, Karl Rove, who previously served as chief of staff to US president George W Bush.</p>
<p>During the same panel event at the Washington-based think tank, Rove argued that China’s strong government involvement in the technology sector was a weakness, and the US would ultimately win the race because private sector competition is a stronger model in this space.</p>
<p>The Chinese &#8220;have got a reputation for shoddy equipment, and shoddy deployment, and we can exploit that by having a better product,” Rove said, dismissing widespread recognition among mobile network operators and industry experts that Huawei equipment and service are equal or superior to competitors in many areas.</p>
<p>James Lewis, a technology policy specialist and senior vice-president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Asia Times that, to the contrary, lack of government funding is holding the US back.</p>
<p>“Our biggest problem is the unwillingness of Republicans to pay taxes,” Lewis said. “This means no infrastructure or basic research. I believe the Reverend Gingrich had a hand in this and it is where the Chinese have a real advantage.”</p>
<p>Others have noted that US firms once at the forefront of making core wireless network equipment already have plenty of private capital to spend, but lack market incentives to invest in the area because it is not lucrative.</p>
<h4>Missing the point</h4>
<p>In the end, Huawei’s dominance in building infrastructure and core components for 5G deployment is an entirely different issue from spectrum policy, ITIF’s Brake said.</p>
<p>“There are a lot of different components to wireless systems that are often conflated when discussing 5G generally or the economic competition between the US and China. Manufacturing of 5G equipment, especially the radio equipment – the base stations of the network – is not something the US participates in,” Brake noted.</p>
<p>The competition to assemble the physical components through which 5G applications will run “is a very different issue from the spectrum policy,” he added.</p>
<p>According to Lewis of CSIS, the open-access wireless proposal “is either a misunderstanding of the market and the technology or some kind of business play for the spectrum market.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there are signs the Trump administration may be considering the policy as part of a broader strategy to become competitive in 5G. The US president signed a memorandum in October directing his top technology adviser to submit a report on priorities “that advance spectrum access and efficiency.” In advance of those recommendations, which are due by this spring, Huawei will be using the exhibition in Barcelona next week to showcase just how big a foothold they already have in the European market.</p>
The Wandering Earth grossed more than US$350 million in its opening week alone
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinas-sci-fi-blockbuster-questions-earths-future/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinas-sci-fi-blockbuster-questions-earths-future/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-310619 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-6.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p><em>The Wandering Earth</em>, an epic science-fiction disaster film about China&#8217;s efforts to save the planet from being devoured by a swelling sun, was a sensational hit throughout the Chinese New Year break, with box-office intakes smashing the 2.5 billion yuan (US$350 million) mark within one week of its premiere.</p>
<p>The plot and special effects are so adrenaline-inducing that many failed to separate fiction from fact. There have even been discussions among some Chinese cinephiles about what humans can do to salvage the world in the event of a devastating solar storm and when the sun reaches its maximum size and becomes a red giant threatening to engulf the Earth.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MLcghUzzQCg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<figure id="attachment_311027" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-311027" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/20171111142932860.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="396" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese novelist Liu Cixin. Photo: Xinhua</figcaption></figure>
<p>Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, who wrote the captivating original novella of the same name that was published almost 20 years ago, now has to allay the fears of many who saw the movie. He now has a growing cult following, but stresses that what happened to our planet in the movie would be unlikely to occur in the real world, for now.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our sun is still in the prime of its life,&#8221; Liu told China Central Television in a recent interview. &#8220;As far as human beings are concerned, even if some changes happen to the sun, it would take an extremely long time in a very distant future&#8221; for it to absorb Earth.</p>
<p>The prolific Liu, now seen as China&#8217;s equivalent to Arthur C Clarke, was also the author of the hugely popular The Three-Body Problem trilogy.</p>
<p>Liu’s interest in sci-fi was first sparked by French novelist Jules Verne’s <em>Journey to the Center of the Earth</em>. “Having read a lot, you will then feel the urge to write something of your own,” he said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_311035" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-311035" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/S4onDRqTl3x89QB_V2Ab9kksLb4zwGgHefWshXn1rIU.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="747" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/S4onDRqTl3x89QB_V2Ab9kksLb4zwGgHefWshXn1rIU.jpg 1920w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/S4onDRqTl3x89QB_V2Ab9kksLb4zwGgHefWshXn1rIU-768x299.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/S4onDRqTl3x89QB_V2Ab9kksLb4zwGgHefWshXn1rIU-1568x610.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A massive storm surge floods Shanghai, as seen in a still from the film. Photo: HandoutChinese</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_311038" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-311038" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/liu-lang-di-qiu-800x450.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="450" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/liu-lang-di-qiu-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/liu-lang-di-qiu-800x450-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The movie develops around the main thread about how a Chinese astronaut and his son saved the Earth. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_311041" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-311041" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ob_7321fc_mv5bmdm1zdgzmzmtn2exzs00y2qzltgzmtitmm.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ob_7321fc_mv5bmdm1zdgzmzmtn2exzs00y2qzltgzmtitmm.jpg 1200w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ob_7321fc_mv5bmdm1zdgzmzmtn2exzs00y2qzltgzmtitmm-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A still from the movie. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>The film is set in the near future, when the sun is aging and about to turn into a bulging red giant, the beginning of the end of its stellar evolution. The sun&#8217;s outer atmosphere bearing down on the Earth sets all governments into action to initiate a project to construct giant thrusters to propel the Earth on an odyssey to find a new sun.</p>
<p>The protagonists in the film are a taikonaut and his emotionally estranged son, who led a global mission to prevent the Earth from crashing into Jupiter on its way out of the solar system.</p>
<p>Back in reality, in order to establish an authentic setting, film director Guo Fan invited four scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to be consultants and the film&#8217;s 3,000 concept maps were elaborately created by a conceptual art team of 300 people over a period of 15 months, according to Xinhua.</p>
<p>Spectacular scenes of China&#8217;s breakout sci-fi blockbuster include landmarks in Beijing and Shanghai collapsing in apocalypse-like earthquakes as the Earth is about to collide with Jupiter. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to believe that this is the first big-budget sci-fi blockbuster done by China,&#8221; Liu said. &#8220;If it fares well in the box office, it will set a good start for China&#8217;s future sci-fi movies.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the high-grossing film genre, sci-fi movies in China used to be mostly Hollywood imports.</p>
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The problem with 2019 is how the clock is catching up with Beijing’s stimulus efforts and the effect it will have on the economy
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-defaults-are-canaries-in-the-global-mine/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-defaults-are-canaries-in-the-global-mine/<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">China experienced an unprecedented wave of corporate defaults in 2018. Yet investors haven’t seen anything yet as mainland growth hits a wall.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">Are those <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-corporate-debt-defaults-may-lead-to-crisis-global-contagion-2019-1">US$18 billion of defaults</a>, up from $4 billion in 2017, the mere tip of the proverbial iceberg? Odds are, yes, as US President Donald Trump’s trade war shoulder-checks China’s export engine, complicating executives’ ability to make bond payments. And that could spell trouble for global markets fearing a deepening slowdown in the second-biggest economy.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">So far in 2019, companies missed nearly $2 billion of local note payments. That could be a bad omen for the $716 billion of bonds maturing over the next 10 months. The same goes for cash-flow realities. The cash-on-hand deficit relative to debt payments is now the highest in six years.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">The problem with 2019 is how the clock is catching up with Beijing’s stimulus efforts. In many ways, <a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-02-12/cash-strapped-cmig-hit-by-another-bond-sell-off-101378495.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-02-12/cash-strapped-cmig-hit-by-another-bond-sell-off-101378495.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550818258309000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFSW3VCj-rS5TTRDddNgIQWMxf7fA">China Minsheng Investment Group&#8217;s</a> journey tells the story.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">Less than five years ago, Shanghai-based CMIG was touted as China’s future answer to Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan Chase. Its ambitions seemed to embody China President Xi Jinping’s vision of the most populous nation spreading its wings globally. After Dong Wenbiao founded CMIG in 2014, he convinced 59 non-state operations to become shareholders and won a public endorsement from Premier Li Keqiang.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">Over time, mismanagement collided with Xi’s moves to squeeze excesses out of the financial system. Efforts to curb the shadow banks, a key source of private-sector support, are catching up with aggressive debt issuers. Add in Trump’s trade war, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/markrosenberg/2019/02/19/brexit-update-hard-risks-soft-landing-still/#338e456e3f06" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/markrosenberg/2019/02/19/brexit-update-hard-risks-soft-landing-still/%23338e456e3f06&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550818258309000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFlk1jarKs97ov2IEleT_UJj9BA7w">financial chaos</a> emanating from Brexit and Federal Reserve tightening, and you have a near-perfect financial storm.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">By January 29, the pressure became too much for CMIG, which missed a bond payment. The same with Wintime Energy, China’s biggest defaulter in 2018. Wintime is a coal miner. Fitting since it, like CMIG and other companies now on the brink, is playing the role of the canary in the global economic mine.</p>
<h4>Tax cuts</h4>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">As Chinese growth slows, Xi’s government has swung into <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/plunge-in-japanese-exports-point-to-dark-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/plunge-in-japanese-exports-point-to-dark-year/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550818258309000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF_MTHrzBz1mYILxSWBo3FzyBG2cw">stimulus mode</a>. Tax cuts, new business loans, central bank liquidity, giant infrastructure projects, you name it. Yet the sharp drop in exports and the specter of more Trump tariffs are sending intensifying headwinds China’s way.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">These forces are bumping into a deleveraging campaign that Xi set in motion in 2016. That makes it harder for companies facing repayment troubles to raise new funds. The lagging effects of that crackdown are counteracting efforts by the People’s Bank of China to ease the liquidity crunch.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">“Given the reduced risk appetite and huge maturing volume, the outlook is poor,” Nathan Chow, an analysts Nathan Chow and Eugene Leow of DBS Bank, wrote in <a href="https://www.dbs.com.sg/treasures/aics/templatedata/article/generic/data/en/GR/022019/190219_insights_risks_in_china_s_bond_and_credit_markets.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dbs.com.sg/treasures/aics/templatedata/article/generic/data/en/GR/022019/190219_insights_risks_in_china_s_bond_and_credit_markets.xml&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550818258309000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHFvRKjwPhGyuft7ZRNqxX0ZOZDwQ">a recent report</a>.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">There are two risks worth considering – one in the short term, one of the long-term variety.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">The immediate concern is how a bull market in Chinese defaults affect world markets. As the Brexit mess hogs headlines, investors may be underappreciating credit risks in eurozone economies. Last month, the European Central Bank warned of possible debt dislocations hiding in plain sight.</p>
<h4>Slowing growth</h4>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">Hints of slowing US growth are mentioned as Washington’s debt load hits the $22 trillion mark. Japan is skirting recession anew, while the downshift in Chinese growth is imperiling exports from Seoul to Sydney. Heightened turmoil in China would slam markets around the globe. That was the case in 2015 when mainland stocks plunged. It will be doubly true if a domino effect of defaults crashes into credit markets.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">The longer-term worry is China’s risk profile. In his six-plus years at the helm, Xi showed little appetite for slower gross domestic product growth. Sure, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/21/chinas-economic-growth-slowest-since-1990" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/21/chinas-economic-growth-slowest-since-1990&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550818258309000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFi_kLXQCLwBir01KjiikHzznp95g">China’s 6.6% growth in 2018</a> was well below the 7.9% pace of 2012. But any serious effort to recalibrate engines from exports to domestic innovation, and from smokestacks to services, necessitates slower GDP.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">The longer GDP stays above, say, 5%, the less Team Xi is doing below the surface. Re-engineering China Inc. and beating its debt addiction will be deeply disruptive. Xi too often opts for stimulus over reform. China’s debt troubles are still growing. It means that when reckoning arrives for the world&#8217;s second-largest economy, the fallout will be even bigger and more spectacular.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">Xi must raise his multitasking game. As he invests trillions of dollars in “Made in China 2025” and a <a href="https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-greater-bay-area-hurdles-clear-tech-challenger-silicon-valley" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.techinasia.com/chinas-greater-bay-area-hurdles-clear-tech-challenger-silicon-valley&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550818258309000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFNLmUQsIHxKDzfOzWHE_1cjDuxhw">Greater Bay Area</a> rival to Silicon Valley, he must simultaneously strengthen the economy’s foundations. That includes a credit-risk system that limits the ability of companies to overborrow.</p>
<p class="m_879126856944266208m_-9154480404432407233gmail-MsoNoSpacing">That is easier said than done at a moment when defaults and economic gloom dominate headlines. Yet this is China’s lot for the year ahead. The only question is how much of the fallout Beijing shares with world markets.</p>
Central bank to maintain prudential monetary policy, maintain liquidity and a stable interest rate
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/no-need-to-buy-large-scale-financial-assets-pboc/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/no-need-to-buy-large-scale-financial-assets-pboc/<p class="p1">The People&#8217;s Bank of China said in its latest Monetary Policy Report for Q4 that there is still plenty of room for using monetary policy tools, lessening the significance of the central bank to purchase assets such as Chinese government bonds from the financial market on a large scale. There is also no need to implement so-called quantitative easing, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3021163">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The PBOC said it will keep its prudential monetary policy, strengthen counter-cyclical adjustment, maintain ample liquidity and a stable market interest rate, The Paper reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Compared to the Q3 report, the PBOC left out the wording of &#8220;neutral&#8221; when mentioning monetary policy, the report said.</p>
<p class="p1">The PBOC further explained that a prudential monetary policy does not mean the monetary condition will remain unchanged. Instead, the money supply should match the requirements of stabilizing economic growth and prices, which means preventing economic overheating and inflation during the upswing, while fighting a recession and deflation in the downturn.</p>
<p class="p1">The PBOC also pointed out that it expects the consumer price index will climb moderately, while the producer price index remains uncertain as it is affected by international commodity prices and domestic demand.</p>
By 2020, the scale of Shanghai’s key AI industry will exceed US$14.88 billion, forming about 60 application scenarios
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shanghai-eyes-long-term-ai-development-fund/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shanghai-eyes-long-term-ai-development-fund/<p class="p1">Shanghai is planning to set up an artificial intelligence development fund to provide long-term and stable funding sources for core technologies, mergers and acquisitions of strategic industries and industrial chain integration, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3019342">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Since 2017, Shanghai has launched a series of policies to promote the development of its AI sector. The city first issued a guidance in November 2017, raising several goals for its AI development.</p>
<p class="p1">By 2020, the scale of Shanghai&#8217;s key AI industry will exceed 100 billion yuan (US$14.88 billion), forming about 60 application scenarios. The project seeks to build six AI demonstration districts, launch more than 100 leading projects, 10 innovation platforms, five industrial zones and 10 benchmark enterprises, according to the guidance.</p>
<p class="p1">In September 2018, the city put forward 22 policies to promote high-quality development of AI from the perspectives of talent, data, industry and capital. For example, the municipal government pledged to provide up to 30% of the total investment of key AI projects, with a ceiling of 20 million yuan.</p>
It is unlikely for inventories nationwide to rise dramatically amid backdrop of de-stocking campaign
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/housing-stocks-could-take-25-months-to-digest/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/housing-stocks-could-take-25-months-to-digest/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s housing inventories in 2019 are expected to rise to a level which could take up to 25 months to digest, as many provinces are trying to attract more people to settle down with a relaxation of household registrations, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3019011">China Securities Journal</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">A report published by Nomura Securities said housing inventories in China will rise to a 25-month high, but below the 30-month high in 2014.</p>
<p class="p1">Generally, 10-month housing stock is considered to be relatively healthy, said Chen Lei, chief analyst at <a href="http://Zhuge.com"><span class="s1">Zhuge.com</span></a>, a housing price comparison website.</p>
<p class="p1">The inventories in some cities will increase moderately as land sales climb, but it is unlikely for the inventories nationwide to rise dramatically to hit historical highs amid the backdrop of China&#8217;s ongoing de-stocking campaign, he said.</p>
<p class="p1">At present, the purchase limit in first- and second-tier cities is unlikely to relax. Many cities are trying to attract more people to settle down and boost demand for home purchases.</p>
<p class="p1">In 2019, there were more than 16 cities that announced various talent introduction and settlement policies, including housing hotspots such as Guangzhou and Haikou city.</p>
US stock benchmarks ended the day virtually unmoved for the third day in a row as the global economy languishes
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/a-play-in-which-nothing-happens-three-times/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/a-play-in-which-nothing-happens-three-times/<p>Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a play in which nothing happens, twice, in the bon mot of the late Professor Vivian Mercier, a frequent guest in my childhood home. This week’s market has been a play in which nothing happened three times &#8211; that is, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. With the major US indices down about 0.4% today, equities are unchanged on the week. Equities are sitting on a bubble.</p>
<p>The market waited for the Fed, which came and went without event, and it continues to wait for the US-China trade negotiations, in which nothing is likely to happen, either. Meanwhile, the trickle of economic data continues to suggest a contraction of world trade and capital investment counterbalanced by a modest expansion in services.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, exports were reported to have fallen year-on-year in Korea (-5.8%) and Japan (8.4%). Today the Markit Eurozone Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing came in at 49.2 (below 50 is a contraction), vs a reading of 60 a year ago. The US manufacturing PMI printed at 53.7. In both cases the service sector looked somewhat better. The US also reported the third decline in capital goods orders in four months.</p>
<p>Of particular interest today was the decline in existing home sales, which came in well below expectations at a 4.94 million annual rate. That is one the forecasters should have seen coming. New home sales are extremely sensitive to mortgage rates, which tells us that every uptick in the cost of mortgage borrowing prices a significant proportion of prospective homebuyers out of the market.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314680" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Mortgages-vs-existing-homes.png" alt="" width="722" height="544" /></p>
<p>In fact, the 30-year mortgage interest rate is a very good predictor of the level of home sales with a few months’ lags.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314682" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Existing-home-sales-forecast.png" alt="" width="837" height="653" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Existing-home-sales-forecast.png 837w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Existing-home-sales-forecast-768x599.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px" /></p>
<p>Except for the impact of the oil price, US yields are going nowhere. Since the last week in December, the<br />
“real” (that is, inflation-indexed) component of the US 5-year Treasury yield has fallen by about 40 basis points while the inflation component has risen by about 30 basis points. The “real” component fell because the Federal Reserve backed away from plans to raise interest rates and the inflation component rose along with the price of oil and other commodities.</p>
<p>As I have shown in several past reports, all risk assets &#8211; oil, stocks, commodities and so on &#8211; traded in line with expectations about monetary policy during the last four months. The Fed’s lurch towards reflation brought down “real” yields and indirectly brought up the inflation component of yields.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314683" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Real-vs-inflation-component-of-treasury-yield.png" alt="" width="927" height="675" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Real-vs-inflation-component-of-treasury-yield.png 927w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Real-vs-inflation-component-of-treasury-yield-768x559.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /></p>
<p>The Powell Fed has taken a lot of flak for its about-face, including from this writer. But it’s important to point out that the Powell isn’t being a baby. The good news is that a shift towards easier money was, in fact, able to revive the price of oil and other commodities after their mid-2018 plunge. That hasn’t happened in Europe and Japan, where we do not observe the same recovery in the inflation component of government bond yields.</p>
<p>In the chart below, we see that the expected inflation rate in Germany is languishing around 0.9%, down from 1.2% in November. The price of oil has recovered, but not German inflation expectations. That a sign of weakness</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314684" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/German-breakeven-inflation.png" alt="" width="708" height="695" /></p>
<p>The only not-so-terrible news is that the US economic juggernaut isn’t crashing. It’s merely decelerating to a crawl. Implied volatility on equity index options continues to decline across markets. I continue to believe that the environment is good for interesting-earning assets but unwholesome for equities in general.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314685" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper.png" alt="" width="815" height="723" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper.png 815w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper-768x681.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" /></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314686" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Breakeven-inflation-diverges.png" alt="" width="858" height="654" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Breakeven-inflation-diverges.png 858w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Breakeven-inflation-diverges-768x585.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px" /></p>
<p>German and Japanese bond yields have flat-lined. No amount of monetary stimulus appears to lift inflation expectations off the ground. That’s not surprising. Recessions are deflationary because businesses lose pricing power. Germany just skirted a recession by the thinnest margin of fourth-quarter growth, and Japan is in recession. That’s the consequence of a regime of uncertainty about global supply chains, which has frozen capital investment plans around the world and hurt the largest capital goods producers the most.</p>
The policy is flexible and affordable, helping to lower financing costs of private and small companies
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rapid-bill-financing-aids-real-economy-pboc/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rapid-bill-financing-aids-real-economy-pboc/<p class="p1">According to the Monetary Policy Department of the People&#8217;s Bank of China, the rapid growth of bill financing in January helped to underpin the real economy, in an op-ed piece published on <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3017202">Financial News</a>, a newspaper run by the PBOC.</p>
<p class="p1">After the central bank released its January financial data last week, the rapid growth of bill financing and undercounted bankers&#8217; acceptances has caused market attention, and some analysts believe that the surge is due to the fact that companies arbitrage from banks through a combination of discounted bills and structured deposits. Such views are not accurate, the PBOC claimed.</p>
<p class="p1">The discount rate of bills is down, so enterprises are more willing to finance through bills. Compared to borrowing from banks, bill financing has become an important financing channel for SMEs, as it is more flexible and affordable, helping to lower the financing costs of private and small companies and thus support the real economy, it said.</p>
<p class="p1">Some enterprises deposit the funds they have financed, instead of investing in their production, hoping for arbitrage from the bank. But there is no arbitrage space any more, as the structural deposit interest rate returns to a reasonable level, the PBOC insisted.</p>
The Russian capital is luring migrant workers from Central Asia, generating a new multiculturalism as well as cashing in on cheap labor
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/all-silk-roads-lead-to-moscow/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/all-silk-roads-lead-to-moscow/<p>On a freezing Sunday morning in blizzard-struck Moscow, where locals are tightly wrapped in winter hat coats and scarves, the huge Afimol Shopping Center offers a different world. Sprawling along a bustling river-side district, it offers everything deep-frozen Muscovites crave – swimming pools, saunas, palm-tree-lined avenues, and endless shops and restaurants.</p>
<p>It’s not just the new mall’s interior that recalls warmer lands. Afimol is a popular hang-out for laborers and migrants with darker skins than cold-weather Slavs. Most are young, 20-something men, but there are girls too. The majority hail from Central Asia, from the Muslim-Turkic republics of the old Silk Roads and the former Soviet Union.</p>
<p>On weekends in malls, they probably outnumber ethnic Russians.</p>
<h4><strong>Moscow’s lure</strong></h4>
<p>Moscow is not noted for multiculturalism, but like Western capitals, is looking increasingly cosmopolitan. This is thanks largely to an influx of foreign laborers locals call “gastarbaitery,” or guest workers, borrowing from the German word.</p>
<p>It started in the late 1990s when Russia’s economy was rising and the ruble was strong, trading at 28 per dollar. Since 2014, following Crimea’s annexation and Western sanctions, the economy has slowed, and the ruble has plunged to 69 to the dollar. Yet the guest workers remain.</p>
<p>For impoverished Tajiks or Kyrgyz whose home countries are plagued by crises, insurgencies, ethnic strife and high unemployment, Moscow is a promised land.</p>
<p>Home to Russia’ big spenders, the city and its 10-million populace appears as prosperous as ever. According to some, Moscow offers the best shopping in Europe, with more mall space than London or Paris, while welfare programs, including free schooling and some free medical care, lures families with children.</p>
<p>When Moscow’s multi-ethnic character and Muslim community are taken into account, the city qualifies as a top destination for CIS migrants.</p>
<h4><strong>The Kyrgyz</strong></h4>
<p>The largest number, by far, come from the landlocked country of Kyrgyzstan, home to about six million people: 70% local Kyrgyz, plus large Russian and Uzbek minorities.</p>
<p>Ironically, more Kyrgyz now live in Russia than in Kyrgyzstan, while in in their homeland there are over a million ethnic Russians. Many Kyrgyz fled the country in the 1990s, after bloody strife and economic decline. But since Moscow and Bishkek signed a “free movement” agreement that allows Kyrgyz to stay in Russia visa-free and work, a huge army of young and jobless youth Kyrgyz descended upon Moscow.</p>
<p>Hotels, shops and restaurants need Russian-speaking staff with low pay expectations. Kyrgyz met these criteria, and are seen as hard-working and dutiful with a strong communal sense. Across Moscow, Kyrgyz salesgirls and waiters are ubiquitous.</p>
<p>A manager at the discount “Grabli” restaurant chain in Moscow proudly said all check-out girls are Kyrgyz. “They can easily talk to one another, and help each other, so it’s a very efficient formula,” he said. “We count on the Kyrgyz for brisk sales and efficiency.”</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8nEBP87obDA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Toolukbek Akynov is a security staffer at the Diksi Supermarket. He said he graduated from the prestigious Kyrgyz National University, but couldn’t find work, so moved to Turkey. Things did not work out. “My job was eventually taken by an Azeri guy. Turks prefer to hire Azeris, they are neighbors,” he said. So, Toolukbek went back to Bishkek, and a year later, to Moscow.</p>
<p>“Here, we Kyrgyz feel more at home – we were the same country for so long,” he said. “So many things are similar here. Besides, the pay is better than in Turkey, and there’s a huge Kyrgyz community here.”</p>
<p>According to statistics, more than 80% of all Kyrgyz working abroad are in Russia while only 10% are in Turkey.</p>
<p>Zhainagul is a waitress at the Coffee House cafe chain. She said salaries are high, compared to home, but living conditions are poor. “Me and my friend tried to rent a room downtown, near my workplace, but it’s just too expensive and many Russians are refusing to rent to Kyrgyz,” she said. “We had to settle for a dormitory room with five more Kyrgyz. It’s too crammed, but there is no choice. “</p>
<h4><strong>Parallel world</strong></h4>
<p>“There are hundreds of thousands of foreign workers and illegal immigrants in Moscow,” Ekaterina Demintseva, director of the Social Policy Research Center of the Moscow Higher School of Economics, told Asia Times. “Moscovites have long got used to them. But locals and foreigners are living in different, parallel worlds. They don’t understand each other and don’t even try.”</p>
<p>Migrants have their own hospitals, kindergartens and even discotheques. More than 30 Kyrgyz and Uzbek hospitals and maternity houses cater to immigrants only.</p>
<p>“Most immigrants in Moscow are Muslims, just like in any European country,” Demintseva, who researches the migrant communities, said. “There are four major mosques in Moscow, but many more unofficial prayer rooms.”</p>
<p>Migrants spend days off at the mall, Demintseva points out, but don’t spend – they can’t afford to. They take photos and proudly send them to relatives back home.</p>
<p>But many grow disillusioned with their cramped accommodation and lifestyle. They also face employer abuse.</p>
<h4><strong>Round the communities</strong></h4>
<p>Uzbeks are prominent in the construction industry, where their living conditions are perhaps the worst among Moscow’s migrants. Many dwell in unheated steel containers. Still, it may be worthwhile. One told Asia Times, after six months of hard labor and miserable conditions, he can buy a house in the southern Uzbek countryside.</p>
<p>Tajik girls do the dirtiest work in Moscow, ending up cleaning, sweeping floors and washing dishes. But even that delivers money to families and relatives in Tajikistan, the poorest of the ex-Soviet states.</p>
<p>Other communities have their own specialties.</p>
<p>Armenians, one of the wealthiest groups, run restaurants and small grocery stores, Georgians run or work in Georgian restaurants while others are taxi drivers.</p>
<p>Many Ukrainians work as bus drivers or domestic helpers. Those fleeing the Donbass violence are ethnic Russians so they enjoy certain privileges, such as the chance to quickly get a Russian passport.</p>
<p>Many thousands of ethnic Koreans have moved to Russia from the Islamic Central Asian republics. These Russian speakers were deported to Central Asia from the Russian Far East by Stalin in the 1930s. But now they choose to live in central Russia, and many hold Russian passports.</p>
<p>Not all immigrants are from the former Soviet Union. There are tens of thousands of Chinese staying and working in Moscow, mostly from northern China, which borders Russia. They arrive daily on the Moscow-Beijing train.</p>
<p>South Koreans are also prominent, particularly since the two countries introduced two-month visa-free entry rights in 2014. In Moscow’s Korston Hotel, there are over a dozen Korean eateries, barbershops and stores. There is also a Korea-speaking taxi service and two Korean-language daily newspapers.</p>
<p>There is a sizable, colorful Indian community, but the largest migrant groups, apart from the CIS, are Turks and Arabs, running small businesses, food stores, restaurants and kebab shops.</p>
<h4><strong>Nascent backlash</strong></h4>
<p>The migrant influx has apparently caught Russian authorities off guard. In public, there is a growing backlash. Moscow’s mosques occasionally face noisy protests, and security officials fret that most immigrants are Muslims, fueling fears of ethnic tensions and extremism.</p>
<p>Predictably, politicians have moved. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, froths on TV shows that unless Russia strictly limits migrant numbers, Moscow will soon be a Muslim city. Zhirinovsky calls Jean-Marie Le Pen, the grand old man of the French National Front his “good old friend” and the duo love discussing the “Islamization” of Russia and France.</p>
<p>Moscow still doesn’t have the kind of purely Muslim suburbs and migrant ghettos that Paris does – which is something Russian authorities fear. And at present, Moscow’s immigrant communities are quiescent. Current conflicts, notably Russia’s role in Syria, could change that.</p>
https://youtu.be/8nEBP87obDA, 99
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/all-silk-roads-lead-to-moscow-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/all-silk-roads-lead-to-moscow-2/https://youtu.be/7WNGlLZIuPs, 96
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnams-new-view-of-an-old-war-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnams-new-view-of-an-old-war-2/Hanoi marked the 40th anniversary of its bloody 1979 border war with China with unprecedented candor, a revisionist reflection of declining contemporary ties
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnams-new-view-of-an-old-war/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnams-new-view-of-an-old-war/<p>By late 1979, Vietnam’s fighting forces could be forgiven for hubris.</p>
<p>In a matter of decades, they had thrown off French colonialism, defeated American troops, unified the country’s north and south, overthrew the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, foiled an anti-communist insurgency in Laos and, finally, defeated a Chinese border incursion in just three weeks.</p>
<p>This February 7 marked the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Vietnam-China border war, a short but fierce struggle that took the lives of tens of thousands of Vietnamese and Chinese soldiers, although the exact number of casualties is contested by both sides.</p>
<p>Armed border spats recurred throughout the 1980s, including a naval battle over a contested reef in the South China Sea, until the two sides formally ended tensions and restored full diplomatic relations in 1991.</p>
<p>The 1979 border war has since been a taboo subject in Vietnam. While commemorative statues and monuments dot the countryside, state media and ruling Communist Party officials have traditionally played down the conflict’s anniversary, paying only lip service to those who perished in the fighting.</p>
<p>The reasons behind the silence are as political as they are economic. China, while still a bête noire for much of the Vietnamese public, is Hanoi&#8217;s second-largest trading partner, trailing only the US.</p>
<p>The two sides’ common communist links have also militated against jingoistic flag-waving on the anniversary, as has a mutual desire not to re-open a historical debate over who was the aggressor and who the victor.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314030" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-314030" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Vietnam-China-1979-Border-War-February-23-1979-e1550655785851.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1140" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Vietnam-China-1979-Border-War-February-23-1979-e1550655785851.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Vietnam-China-1979-Border-War-February-23-1979-e1550655785851-768x547.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Vietnam-China-1979-Border-War-February-23-1979-e1550655785851-1568x1117.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Vietnamese artillery unit resists Chinese invaders along the 230-kilometer border line of the province Lang Son with China, February 23, 1979. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>That is, until now. Vietnamese authorities openly marked this year&#8217;s anniversary by allowing several state-run newspapers to publish in-depth and critical features about the war and its veterans.</p>
<p>Voice of Vietnam, a Communist Party mouthpiece, published at least a dozen articles last week documenting memories of veterans and analysis of what the war means to Vietnam today. One article even called the war a “righteous&#8230;struggle to defend the Fatherland.” Another described it as “China&#8217;s brutal and illogical invasion.”</p>
<p>The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, a government department, also held a day-long conference where academics and historians were invited to present papers on the subject.</p>
<p>“After decades keeping silent or being kept silent, it was the first time the state media had a chance to cover stories about such period of time in our history,” said Nguyen Chi Tuyen, a prominent human rights activist who goes by the online name Anh Chi. “Some called China our enemy, but others used vague terms like ‘opponents’ from the ‘other side of the border,’” he added.</p>
<p>State-run newspapers were keen to stress that it was a “tragic historic event,” as one article put it, and that Vietnam and China should learn from it to strengthen their relations. And despite the relative honesty, especially compared to previous years, certain topics still remained off-limits.</p>
<p>For instance, there was no mention of the disputed death tolls. The Vietnamese government, backed by some historians, have long claimed that fewer of its soldiers were killed than China&#8217;s, though this is contentious.</p>
<p>Neither was there any mention of the role some of Vietnam&#8217;s ethnic minority groups played in supporting Chinese forces, a controversial issue considering many of those same groups remain disenfranchised and impoverished today. Nor was there any talk about the Soviet Union&#8217;s role in supporting Vietnam against China, which raises questions about the present day government&#8217;s effusion for socialist comradeship.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314032" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-314032" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Vietnam-Martyrs-Cemetery-1979-Border-War-2009-e1550655910913.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1064" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Vietnam-Martyrs-Cemetery-1979-Border-War-2009-e1550655910913.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Vietnam-Martyrs-Cemetery-1979-Border-War-2009-e1550655910913-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Vietnam-Martyrs-Cemetery-1979-Border-War-2009-e1550655910913-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Chinese war veteran visits the Chinese military&#8217;s &#8216;Martyr&#8217;s Cemetery&#8217; for the 1979 war with Vietnam at the border town of Malipo. Photo: AFP/Mark Ralston</figcaption></figure>
<p>The moderate shift in the conflict’s official treatment comes during a period of strained relations, particularly over China&#8217;s expansionism and militarization of contested features in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>Indeed, some see certain parallels in today’s sea tensions and the 1979 border war. Beijing&#8217;s motivation for its border attack, it said at the time, was to “teach” an “ungrateful” Vietnam a lesson after it helped to oust Cambodia&#8217;s China-backed Khmer Rouge regime through an invasion of Phnom Penh.</p>
<p>Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until the late 1980s, while China supported Khmer Rouge rebels who retreated to the country’s remote western region, in what became a sort of decade-long China-Vietnam proxy war.</p>
<p>But while Vietnam’s tightly controlled state media was allowed to reflect this year on the border war, it wasn&#8217;t a privilege afforded to ordinary citizens.</p>
<p>Tuyen says that he traveled to a commemoration site in Hanoi on Sunday to light incense and mark the anniversary but was quickly accosted by police. After being spirited away in a sports utility vehicle and held incommunicado for several hours in a far-flung police station, he was released and allowed to return home.</p>
<figure id="attachment_117908" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-117908" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Vietnam-Police-August-19-2012-e1550656147328.jpg" alt="A policeman blocks photographers from taking pictures during an anti-China protest in front of the Opera House in Hanoi in a file photo. Photo: Reuters/Nguyen Lan Thang " width="1600" height="1100" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Vietnam-Police-August-19-2012-e1550656147328.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Vietnam-Police-August-19-2012-e1550656147328-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Vietnam-Police-August-19-2012-e1550656147328-1568x1078.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A policeman blocks photographers from taking pictures at an anti-China protest in front of Hanoi&#8217;s Opera House in a file photo. Photo: Reuters/Nguyen Lan Thang</figcaption></figure>
<p>“They told me that I must stay at home or do something else, but not go out to commemorate &#8211; the thing was secretly forbidden on that day,” Tuyen told Asia Times.</p>
<p>His harassment speaks to the ruling Communist Party’s firm intent to dictate how the conflict’s anniversary is remembered and commemorated, not the general public. That’s because anti-China protests in Vietnam, held for various reasons in recent years, often quickly morph into anti-government protests mobilized around the notion the Party has sold out national interests to Beijing.</p>
<p>As a result, the Communist Party often appears unsure how to respond. It certainly doesn&#8217;t like to see its citizens voicing their opinions in public, but neither does it want to appear to be supporting China or doing Beijing&#8217;s bidding, something its critics regularly accuse.</p>
<p>At the same time, memories of the American War, as it is referred to locally, evoke comparatively few angry feelings towards the US these days. This is largely due to the fact that antagonisms against China date back centuries, while those against the US started in the 1950s. Moreover, American culture, including cinema and music, is popular with wide swathes of the Vietnamese public.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7WNGlLZIuPs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Washington and Hanoi&#8217;s diplomatic relations have arguably never been better. When Donald Trump arrives in Hanoi later this month to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, it will mark his second visit to Vietnam since becoming president in 2016.</p>
<p>Then US Defense Secretary James Mattis visited Vietnam twice last year, while last March the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier became the first US military vessel to dock in Vietnam since the 1970s, a sign of America’s support for Vietnam’s resistance to China’s ambitions in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>But while Vietnam leans heavily towards the US in the broad US-China competition for influence in the Asia-Pacific, communist officials in Hanoi still often play coy to avoid irking Beijing.</p>
<p>Nguyen Phu Trong, the Communist Party&#8217;s General Secretary and State President, has visited Beijing on several occasions in recent years, each time vowing to strengthen their relations. Defense Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich visited Beijing last October and said he wanted Vietnam and China to improve their defense relations.</p>
<p>“China is our neighbor and our friend,” said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in January, adding that Vietnam will “try to resolve all issues with them”, reference to disputes in the South China Sea.</p>
<figure id="attachment_105355" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-105355" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Hkg10227262_1-e1550656276822.jpg" alt="Vietnamese and Chinese communist youths wave flags to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (both not pictured) at a meeting in Hanoi on November 6, 2015. Xi said he hoped for a &quot;higher level&quot; partnership with Vietnam on a visit that has angered Vietnamese nationalists at a time of bubbling conflict over the South China Sea. AFP PHOTO / POOL / Na Son Nguyen / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Na Son Nguyen" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Hkg10227262_1-e1550656276822.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Hkg10227262_1-e1550656276822-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Hkg10227262_1-e1550656276822-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Vietnamese and Chinese communist youths wave flags to welcome national leaders at a meeting in Hanoi on November 6, 2015. Photo: AFP/Na Son Nguyen</figcaption></figure>
<p>For centuries, China has been something of a bogeyman in Vietnam. Chinese incursions into what is today Vietnamese territory date back to the 1st century BC, while much of northern Vietnam, including the Red River basin, was controlled by China for millennia.</p>
<p>Numerous so-called “Chinese dominations” of Vietnamese land took place throughout the centuries, including colonization in the 15th century, after which even independent Vietnamese territories adopted Chinese customs, including bureaucratic models and written script. (Many were only dropped after French colonization.)</p>
<p>So when Hanoi planned last year to introduce a new special economic zone (SEZ) law that allowed for 99-year land leases, many perceived the move as selling Vietnamese land to Chinese companies, perceptions that sparked some of the largest nationalistic protests in the country in years.</p>
<p>Despite the government&#8217;s assurances that the SEZs would be open to all foreign investors, the demonstrations were so forceful that the government made a rare volte-face, saying it would delay the SEZ proposal “for further study.”</p>
<p>It remains unclear whether the Communist Party&#8217;s decision this year to allow for a more open retelling of the 1979 war with China is an admission that the public should be allowed to shape how Vietnamese history is told, or, at the least, to show the public that it isn&#8217;t Beijing’s tool.</p>
<p>According to Tuyen, it was all part of the communist regime&#8217;s “own game” in the geopolitical field, “swinging between the powers China and the US.”</p>
Samsung’s latest 5G smartphone will include dedicated and ‘secure’ storage functionality for cryptocurrencies
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/new-galaxy-s10-includes-crypto-functionality/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/new-galaxy-s10-includes-crypto-functionality/<p>In December last year rumors hit the web that Samsung will be including cryptocurrency functionality when it launches its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10. The tech giant initially dismissed them but a formal launch of the device this week confirmed those rumors to be true.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, <a href="https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-s10-more-screen-cameras-unpacked-2019/">the Korean conglomerate </a>confirmed that its latest smartphone will include a dedicated and secure storage function designed for cryptocurrencies. “Galaxy S10 is built with defense-grade Samsung Knox, as well as a secure storage backed by hardware,&#8221; which it said can house the private encryption keys for what Samsung called &#8220;blockchain-enabled mobile services.”</p>
<p>The move is significant as it signals a major shift into the crypto space by one of the world’s largest tech companies. This week is an important one for Samsung. The smartphone technology leader held its &#8220;Unpacked 2019&#8221; event on Wednesday to showcase its latest offerings.</p>
<p>The highly anticipated Galaxy S10 took the limelight at the event, with its raft of new features and &#8220;new era&#8221; 5G connectivity but although the specific terms &#8220;crypto&#8221; and &#8220;wallet&#8221; were not mentioned during the keynote launch presentations – the release announcement indicates that the term “Blockchain KeyStore” will be used – it was crypto inclusion that generated the most excitement with the Korean press.</p>
<p>The news could also move the price of Bitcoin and other crypto assets by introducing them to millions of potential users that otherwise would not have known how or where to buy digital currency. A number of observers have linked the expected announcement to the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/crypto-markets-surge-up-20-in-february/">recent crypto market rally</a> that has boosted digital currencies by 20% this month alone.</p>
<p>The Galaxy S10 joins a slowly growing line of smartphones designed with cryptocurrencies in mind and these now include the Korean HTC Exodus 1 and the Swiss Sirin Labs’ Finney, both of which were announced last year. Both are truly crypto-centric devices. The Exodus 1 can only be bought using Bitcoin or Ethereum and the Finney can only be purchased using the maker&#8217;s &#8220;Sirin token.&#8221; <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/samsung-says-chip-demand-recovering-but-earnings-weak/">Samsung</a> will not be offering the ability to buy phones using crypto but trading and storing them will now be possible.</p>
<p>The clear observation from those in the smartphone industry? Where is Apple?</p>
<p>Watch this space.</p>
A hack attack on Australia’s parliamentary servers points towards Beijing’s known desire to penetrate the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-australia-on-a-cyber-collision-course/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-australia-on-a-cyber-collision-course/<p>Cybersecurity agencies within the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance are working together to thwart hacking attacks against political institutions following a recent incursion into parliamentary computer servers in Australia.</p>
<p>The breach earlier this month targeted the country’s three main political parties and came after a global hacking blitz in December against government agencies and companies in Europe, Australia and the United States.</p>
<p>Canadian electronic eavesdroppers have confirmed they are cooperating with their Australian counterparts. There have also been information exchanges with the US, United Kingdom and New Zealand, the other Five Eyes nations.</p>
<p>“We work closely with our Australian partners, including ongoing efforts to understand the full extent of this incident,” Canada’s Communications Security Establishment spokesman Ryan Foreman said after the attacks.</p>
<p>Australia and Canada both have pending general elections — Australia in May and Canada in October — and are concerned efforts may be made to influence voting. Canada blocked a hacking operation during its 2015 poll.</p>
<p>Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there was no evidence of any electoral interference when parliamentary servers were hacked in Canberra. Government ministers use a different system and the target appears to have been communications by the Liberal, Labor and National parties.</p>
<figure id="attachment_255749" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-255749" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Australia-Scott-Morrison-August-24-2018-e1550745983791.jpg" alt="Australia's incoming Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks at a press conference in Canberra on August 24, 2018. Photo: AFP/Saeed Khan" width="1600" height="1044" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Australia-Scott-Morrison-August-24-2018-e1550745983791.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Australia-Scott-Morrison-August-24-2018-e1550745983791-768x501.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Australia-Scott-Morrison-August-24-2018-e1550745983791-1568x1023.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Australia&#8217;s Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks at a press conference in Canberra, August 24, 2018. Photo: AFP/Saeed Khan</figcaption></figure>
<p>He did not name the “sophisticated state actor” behind the attacks, but it is widely believed to be China. Hacking by other cyber agencies with state backing, like Russia and North Korea, has been largely exploratory.</p>
<p>“There are a limited number of countries, but we have low confidence at being able to publicly state who we think it is,” Alistair MacGibbon, head of the government-run Australian Cyber Security Center, said obliquely.</p>
<p>Danielle Cave, a cyber analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China was the only country showing persistent interest in Australia.</p>
<p>“If you think about the other state actors that would have the cyber capabilities to pull breaches like this, like Russia, North Korea, Iran,” she said. “Those states are less interested in what&#8217;s happening in Australia. China is very, very interested. History teaches us they are a very likely culprit.”</p>
<p>But Cave dismissed speculation that the attacks were connected with the general election or any effort to influence electoral trends. She believes the motivation is purely to gather intelligence on Australia and its allies.</p>
<p>Such efforts have been underway since at least 2007, when highly secret government computer networks in Australia and New Zealand were hit by a hacking offensive that was said to be part of a global operation by China to access military secrets shared by the Five Eyes partners.</p>
<figure id="attachment_261286" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-261286" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/China-Technology-Espionage-Cybercrime-iStock-e1550746082110.jpg" alt="Conceptual image of a computer hacker juxtaposed against a Chinese flag. Image: iStock/Getty Images" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/China-Technology-Espionage-Cybercrime-iStock-e1550746082110.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/China-Technology-Espionage-Cybercrime-iStock-e1550746082110-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/China-Technology-Espionage-Cybercrime-iStock-e1550746082110-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Conceptual image of a computer hacker juxtaposed against a Chinese flag. Image: iStock/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>Canada was another target of that attempt, as were Germany and Japan; the Germans and Japanese have access to some Western intelligence, though not the full menu shared by the Five Eyes partners. It is not believed that any sensitive information was lost during the hacking.</p>
<p>China was also blamed for a global hacking offensive in December, given the code name Advanced Persistent Threat 10 (APT10) by cyber experts, that targeted public agencies and commercial firms in a dozen countries.</p>
<p>Believed again to be intelligence-based, the operation led to the arrests of two Chinese nationals in the US and a rare condemnation of China by Australia.</p>
<p>“Australia calls on all countries — including China — to uphold commitments to refrain from cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, trade secrets and confidential business information with the intent of obtaining a competitive advantage,” a government statement said.</p>
<p>China did not take kindly to the outburst and there is unlikely to be any public denunciation this time for fear of Beijing’s economic retaliation. Recently, China quietly began to delay the processing of Australian coal shipments, with clearances now taking up to 45 days — double the previous time.</p>
<p>Chinese importers have responded by scrapping orders from Australia and switching to rival suppliers. Coal from other nations is not being affected. Similar Chinese tactics were employed against Australian wine imports last year, with reports that one supplier had 800,000 cases held up in warehouses.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314577" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-314577" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Australia-Flags-Navy-Facebook-e1550746464928.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="904" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Australia-Flags-Navy-Facebook-e1550746464928.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Australia-Flags-Navy-Facebook-e1550746464928-768x434.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/China-Australia-Flags-Navy-Facebook-e1550746464928-1568x886.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese and Australian flags ripple in a maritime wind. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>Relations between the two countries have deteriorated because of the cyber accusations and a series of diplomatic spats over China’s attempts to woo Pacific nations with aid handouts. Canberra has enacted new laws against foreign meddling in politics that were clearly aimed at Beijing.</p>
<p>Even though it wasn’t held officially responsible for the latest hacking, China still issued a rebuttal through foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shaung over what he termed as “irresponsible” speculation, warning it would raise tensions.</p>
<p>“One should present abundant evidence when investigating and determining the nature of a cyberspace activity, instead of making baseless speculations and firing indiscriminate shots at others,” he said.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactive/cyber-operations#Takeaways">tracking index</a> maintained by the US-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank, China was responsible for 102 state-sponsored cyberattacks in 2018, followed by Russia (71), Iran (26) and North Korea (23).</p>
<p>The US mounted 11 operations, including three in conjunction with Israel, one with Taiwan and one with the UK. The UK also had one of its own.</p>
<p>In Asia and the Middle East, Israel was the other most active cyber player with four operations in addition to the US collaboration. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam each mounted two operations, and India, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Lebanon one each, the research shows.</p>
Technology invented by Ma Wan-chun scans and digitizes stars’ faces for blockbuster films
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hollywood-honors-taiwanese-computer-genius/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hollywood-honors-taiwanese-computer-genius/<p>A software engineer from Taiwan has been acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his groundbreaking facial-digitizing technology that is behind the adrenaline-inducing visual effects of a number of Hollywood science-fiction blockbusters that have awed global audiences.</p>
<p>Ma Wan-chun, who now works as an engineer for Google, received the Scientific and Technical Achievement Award along with his colleagues at the 91st Academy Awards this month for their computer graphics technology developed at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies.</p>
<p>Ma helped created an older version of Brad Pitt in <em>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</em> (2008), brought the Na’vi tribe to the big screen in <em>Avatar</em> (2009) and re-created Paul Walker’s performance in <em>Furious 7</em> (2015) after the actor died mid-production.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314515" style="width: 687px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314515" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/The-Curious-Case-of-Benjamin-Button.jpg" alt="" width="687" height="460" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An aged Brad Pitt in the 2008 fantasy romantic drama film <em>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</em>. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_314519" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314519" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/avatar.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/avatar.jpg 1920w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/avatar-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/avatar-1568x882.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A still from the 2009 blockbuster <em>Avatar,</em> whose production relied on the facial-digitizing technology. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>Polarized spherical gradient illumination technology is a facial-appearance-capture algorithm that uses a dome-shaped object called Light Stage X. When an actor performs inside it, he is illuminated by about 300 LED (light-emitting diode) units for his appearance and gestures to be captured and analyzed by cameras from different angles.</p>
<p>The footage is then converted into a three-dimensional model for visual-effects computation and rendering, enabling a computer to understand the geometry, pore texture and light properties of an actor’s face, according to Ma.</p>
<p>The technology is a breakthrough in facial capture when producing special visual effects, allowing shape and reflectance capture of an actor’s face with sub-millimeter detail, enabling the faithful re-creation of characters&#8217; faces. The Light Stage X structure is the foundation for all subsequent innovation and has been the keystone of the method’s evolution into a production system.</p>
<p>Ma told Taiwan&#8217;s Central News Agency that he had always been fascinated by visual effects in movies and video games, such as the diverse alien characters in the Star Wars franchise and the combination of real actors and animated backgrounds in the 1994 game Wing Commander 3.</p>
<p>As the field of computer graphics was still in its infancy in Taiwan in the early 2000s, Ma used a scholarship from Taiwan&#8217;s Graduate Student Study-Abroad Program to pursue his studies. He said that instead of only researching for his doctoral dissertation, he always wanted to put his expertise into practice, and the work at USC helped him “turn imagination into reality.”</p>
<p>His team’s next step is to transfer the realistic visual effects presented in cinemas to smartphones by applying the technology to the fields of augmented reality and virtual reality.</p>
The Filipino boy band had an unexpected meeting with the US singer during a TV performance
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/tnt-boys-real-dynamite-with-ariana-grande/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/tnt-boys-real-dynamite-with-ariana-grande/<p>Filipino boy band the TNT Boys got a shock when their idol Ariana Grande unexpectedly joined them onstage midway through their performance on a late night American TV show. But like true professionals, the trio just kept on singing their hearts out.</p>
<p>Francis Concepcion, Mackie Empuerto and Keifer Sanchez were on the James Corden Show to compete in a new reality talent quest called The World’s Best and host Corden told them why his “favorite new boy band on planet Earth” had been invited to compete, <a href="http://cnnphilippines.com/entertainment/2019/02/20/TNT-Boys-Ariana-Grande-James-Corden.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN Philippines</a> reported.</p>
<p>“I came to meet you &#8230; Your first words were, ‘Oh my God, you’ve met Ariana Grande’,” Corden told the boys, who were unaware that the American singer was listening backstage.</p>
<p>The band then launched into Jennifer Hudson’s song And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, and were joined onstage on Grande, who quickly joined in. Despite their initial shock, the boys managed to complete the song and got a standing ovation from the audience.</p>
<p>“I am obsessed with you guys. You are so incredible. That was so beautiful,” Grande told them.</p>
<p>The trio have caused a sensation since they emerged on the music scene in 2017 in the Philippine talent competition Tawag Ng Tanghalan. They were invited to perform on both the UK and US versions of Little Big Shots and attracted millions of views on YouTube after impersonating the Bee Gees in the Philippine TV television show You Face Sounds Familiar.</p>
<p class="p1">They have also impersonated Grande, Nikki Minaj and Jessie J and recorded a hit song, Bang Bang.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oq1laX_Di_Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
The recent blog article has gone viral after the author said she could have made more money from share options
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/alibaba-feathers-ruffled-by-ex-staffers-blog/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/alibaba-feathers-ruffled-by-ex-staffers-blog/<p>One of the most popular reads this week came from a blog entitled, “The beautiful ex-Alibaba Group senior management never had Valentine’s Day”, which generated intense levels of discussion in fintech circles.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.sohu.com/a/295179718_115479" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a>, a start-up chief executive called Judy Wang Han claimed she was an ex-Alibaba Group senior executive with an annual salary of several million yuan and a share option of over 10 million yuan (US$1.49 million) .</p>
<p>To make it more convincing, she even uploaded a <a href="https://n.sinaimg.cn/tech/transform/483/w550h733/20190215/eIve-htacqwv4173175.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">picture</a> of herself taken with chairman Jack Ma Yun.</p>
<p>Not everyone at the Alibaba Group was pleased by her article. The head of Ant Financial&#8217;s public relations subsidiary wrote asking people in his friends circle, “In general, many ex-colleagues will tend to exaggerate their resumés when they join another start-up, but there is a limit. How can Wang Hang be considered a senior manager?”</p>
<p>Wang fired back with a post that showed her options record and how she arrived at her calculation of over 10 million yuan.</p>
<p>When she left the company, her share option was priced at 190 yuan. Had she not left the company, her 39,000-share option, if exercised, would have gone to nearly 20 million yuan assuming the share price went up to 500 yuan in three years.</p>
<p>This makes for a lot of assumptions, given that it is hard to predict the future valuation of Ant Financial, the biggest unicorn in China with a US$150 billion valuation as of the end of 2018.</p>
<p>Wang might also have been trying to confuse the issue of the future value of her options, since she no longer owns the options in any case.</p>
<p>But at least Wang has already benefited from her blog going viral, never mind that half of it discussed facial masks. Wang said her skin&#8217;s condition deteriorated while she spent 10 years with Alibaba, which might be a small price to pay for the company making her financially independent.</p>
<p>Chinese version: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/atc-alibaba-former-empolyee-said-she-losses-10mln-after-leaving/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">阿里離職「女高管」稱損失千萬期權</a></p>
<p>Asia Times has relaunched on <a href="http://www.asiatimes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.asiatimes.com</a>. Download our brand new <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asiatimes.app&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">native App</a> for a sweeping selection of geopolitical and business news from across Asia.</p>
It is not clear how much of its voter base the AIADMK alliance can hold onto
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bjps-tamil-nadu-alliance-could-fall-flat/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bjps-tamil-nadu-alliance-could-fall-flat/<p>As India&#8217;s April general elections inch closer, the key political parties are stitching up formal alliances. At stake is Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s attempt to gain a second period in government after his 2014 formation of the first majority government in India in 30 years. While his party, the BJP, made major gains last time, it is now anticipating the loss of a large number of seats won in 2014.</p>
<p>This means that the first round of major alliances formed are seen as an effort to shore up falling numbers. In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where the BJP has virtually no presence, it announced a key pre-poll alliance on Tuesday. A careful assessment of the BJP – All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) – Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) alliance for the upcoming general elections reveals that it can at best hope to make an impact in only a handful of constituencies in Tamil Nadu. The alliance is likely to include a couple of other smaller regional parties in the state.</p>
<p>Firstly, the BJP by itself has only a marginal presence in Tamil Nadu, and its base is confined to two or three constituencies like Kanyakumari in southern Tamil Nadu and Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu.</p>
<p>This is reflected in the fact that the BJP has been allotted only five seats whereas the PMK has been given seven seats. The AIADMK will contest 27 out of a total of 40 seats, 39 in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry, a neighboring union territory. The AIADMK may allot a further two or three seats to other smaller forces joining the alliance.</p>
<p>The seat sharing arrangement only emphasizes that the BJP is entirely dependent on its allies in Tamil Nadu to win even a single seat.</p>
<p>While it has a presence in Kanyakumari and Coimbatore where it is likely to field candidates, its own voter base in these constituencies is not sufficient to get the BJP first past the post. This makes it important to carefully understand the PMK and the AIADMK in order to assess the strength of this alliance.</p>
<p>The PMK has a strong base with the Other Backward Castes (OBC) Vanniyar caste base, but is largely confined to a few parliamentary constituencies in northern Tamil Nadu.</p>
<p>Going by a re-calibration of data from the 2016 assembly elections, the PMK polled a 10% or greater share of the vote in only eight parliamentary constituencies. Its highest vote share was 23.8% in the Dharmapuri constituency and in the other seven it was between 10% and 17%.</p>
<h4>PMK&#8217;s voter base</h4>
<p>The PMK’s voter base represents value to the alliance, irrespective of the side the party takes. Since the 1990s, the PMK has hopped from the DMK to its arch rival, the AIADMK, taking its voter base along with it. This means it is considered a powerful force to ally with. It was part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments at the federal level and had pre-poll alliances with the DMK or the AIADMK in the assembly elections. But since 2009 it has tried contesting seats alone, without making any impact.</p>
<p>This may mean that even the PMK needs the AIADMK vote to win seats in its stronghold as it cannot do so alone. In fact, in 2014, the BJP and PMK formed an alliance and polled just 5.5% and 4.4% of the vote respectively to win one seat each, whereas the AIADMK, under the late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, went alone and polled 44% of the vote to win 37 of Tamil Nadu’s 39 seats. But the gain for the AIADMK or the BJP, if any, from the PMK will be minimal.</p>
<p>It is true that the PMK has a small voter base in a few other constituencies that will transfer to alliance candidates, but the major impact of the PMK joining this alliance will be for its candidates and not for its allies. This means that the success of this alliance rests almost entirely on the performance of the AIADMK.</p>
<h4>AIADMK turmoil</h4>
<p>The AIADMK has been in turmoil since the demise of its leader J Jayalalithaa in 2016, and a section of the party led by TTV Dhinakaran has broken away to form the parent party. During the by-elections for the assembly seat that became open following Jayalalithaa’s death, it was Dhinakaran who won by a huge margin and not the ruling party group. This was also the only election held in Tamil Nadu since the death of Jayalalithaa.</p>
<p>Now, the BJP alliance is with the ruling AIADMK and is unlikely to bring in the Dhinakaran faction. Hence, it is not clear if the ruling AIADMK alliance can hold onto the entire AIADMK voter base or even a majority of it. This hints that the BJP will not make the inroads in the state that it hopes for.</p>
<p>While the AIADMK polled 44% of votes in the 2014 parliamentary polls – one of its best ever performances – in the coming general election its voter support is expected to drop sharply in the absence of Jayalalithaa. A further split in the voter base could leave the AIADMK component of the alliance arithmetic in shambles.</p>
<h4>DMK-Congress alliance</h4>
<p>Opposition parties Congress and the DMK, on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/dmk-congress-make-it-official-seal-alliance-tn-2019-lok-sabha-polls-97074">announced their alliance</a> a day after their rivals.</p>
<p>The Congress party has been allotted nine seats in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry by the DMK. The announcement was made at the DMK headquarters in Chennai where KC Venugopal, general secretary of Congress said: “The country very much needed this alliance. The country is disappointed at Narendra Modi. What he promised in the election, nothing has been fulfilled in the last five years&#8230;We are not first-time allies. Congress and DMK are long-term partners… We are expecting a very good result in Tamil Nadu. We are expecting 100 percent result in Tamil Nadu. We are going to have a very strong victory in Tamil Nadu. In the coming days we will finalize which seats we are going to contest.”</p>
<p>The DMK, in the aftermath of the 2G scam, achieved its worst ever share of the vote in 2014 after the party broke away from the Congress party and was routed in terms of seats. The Congress too, was at its lowest with a 4.3% vote share.</p>
<p>In fact, in the 2016 assembly polls, the Congress and the DMK together polled a vote share of around 38%.</p>
<p>These facts show that even if the AIADMK vote share drops by close to 10% from 2014 – let alone the fact that even that may be split into factions &#8211; it could prove disastrous for the alliance with the BJP. This may especially be true as Tamil Nadu is a &#8220;sweep state&#8221;, where the alliance that has the voter share arithmetic has registered massive victories in the past. In 2004 the DMK alliance won all 39 seats and in 2014 Jayalalithaa took 37 seats.</p>
<p>In the final analysis, the BJP has little to lose in Tamil Nadu, but at the same time it cannot to hope to gain much, as the alliance arithmetic may not be very strong on the ground. This means that hopes of its anticipated losses in the north being balanced out by gains in the south remain a chimera, at best.</p>
When caught, he explained that acting natural and blending in makes it easy to steal
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-filmed-stealing-in-restaurant-in-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-filmed-stealing-in-restaurant-in-china/<p>A man in was <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3007017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caught on camera</a> in China stealing money from a restaurant diner&#8217;s bag without anyone noticing.</p>
<p>The robbery took place on February 15 at a restaurant in Chongqing. In the camera footage, the thief can be seen acting natural and pretending to tie his shoelaces as he waits to strike. The moment the victim gets engaged in the meal with his friends and family, the thief casually takes the valuables and walks away.</p>
<p>Authorities were informed of the robbery by the victim. While they were investigating the first case, another case popped up with the man in green found to be the same perpetrator using the same <em>modus operandi</em>.</p>
<p>The thief, who had taken about 3000 Yuan (US$446) from the two robberies, was later caught by the authorities. He explained that as long as one acts natural and blends in, it is very easy to get away with stealing.</p>
<p>He is currently being held by Chinese Public Security and may be charged with theft.</p>
A long stalled rail project to connect the two nations has been given new impetus under Aung San Suu Kyi’s isolated government
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/full-speed-ahead-for-china-myanmar-high-speed-railway/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/full-speed-ahead-for-china-myanmar-high-speed-railway/<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225558"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225559">Once stalled plans to build a high-speed railroad connecting China’s southern city of Kunming and Myanmar’s Kyaukphyu port on the Bay of Bengal are firmly back on track.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225561"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225562">If completed, the 1,400-kilometer railroad will be a crucial link in a strategic economic corridor through which China’s imports and exports would bypass the congested Malacca Strait and contested South China Sea, both potential chokepoints in any conflict scenario.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225564"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225565">There are already gas and oil pipelines in place running from Myanmar’s western coast and China’s southern Yunnan province which strategically bypass maritime bottlenecks and potential trouble spots.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225567"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225568">Combined with a special economic zone (SEZ) that is being developed around Kyaukphyu, and plans for a new expressway linking the Chinese border to Myanmar’s coast, it is plain to see how economically and strategically important the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, or CMEC, is to China’s long-term vision for the region and beyond.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225570"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225571">The CMEC forms a crucial part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s US$1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a China-centered network of trade-promoting roads, railroads and shipping lanes spanning more than 60 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225573"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225574">But concerns of Chinese domination have been aired among Myanmar lawmakers, who have asked for more transparency regarding mega-projects that are at least in part being financed by loans from China.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_193425" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-193425" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/China-Myanmar-Xi-Jinping-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-May-2017-e1550741046474.jpg" alt="China's President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi as they attend the welcome ceremony at Yanqi Lake during the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on May 15, 2017. Photo: AFP/Pool " width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/China-Myanmar-Xi-Jinping-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-May-2017-e1550741046474.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/China-Myanmar-Xi-Jinping-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-May-2017-e1550741046474-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/China-Myanmar-Xi-Jinping-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-May-2017-e1550741046474-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Myanmar&#8217;s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Belt and Road Forum, Beijing, May 15, 2017. Photo: AFP/Pool</figcaption></figure>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225576"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225577">In December, several lawmakers spoke in the parliament in Naypyitaw about the slow pace in which current loans are being repaid because of a lack of financial resources. They urged the government to renegotiate the terms to avoid falling into a sovereignty-eroding debt-trap situation.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225579"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225580">That concern is growing, as the current government led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) has become more welcoming to the BRI because of Western condemnation of the country’s human rights record.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225582"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225583">The condemnation has focused on military operations that have forced the flight of some 700,000 Muslim Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, similar abuses in other conflict-ridden ethnic minority areas, and a severe clampdown on the media.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225585"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225586">China is clearly taking full advantage of Myanmar’s new isolation to advance its own interests. In 2011, the then government led by president Thein Sein famously suspended a China-backed US$3.6 billion hydroelectric power project in the country’s north as the country moved away from China and towards the West.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225588"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225589">In 2014, Thein Sein let a Memorandum of Understanding with China for the construction of a high-speed railroad from Yunnan to the coast expire. The project was to be completed at a total cost of US$20 billion, but never materialized amid concerns over the cost and fears of greater dependence on China.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225591"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225592">In September last year, the ruling NLD-led government signed what was termed the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor agreement. Suu Kyi now heads a 25-member steering committee that has been appointed to oversee the implementation of joint venture projects with China.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225594"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225595">She and her colleagues plan to attend the China-initiated 2nd BRI Forum for International Cooperation to be held in Beijing in April this year. The first such forum, held in May 2017 in Beijing saw the attendance of heads and representatives from more than 130 countries and 70 international organizations, according to an official statement.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_261088" style="width: 1530px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-261088" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Myanmar-China-Corridor-Map-Shwe-Gas-Facebook-e1550741138523.jpg" alt="Map of proposed China-Myanmar corridor. Image: Facebook" width="1530" height="991" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Myanmar-China-Corridor-Map-Shwe-Gas-Facebook-e1550741138523.jpg 1530w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Myanmar-China-Corridor-Map-Shwe-Gas-Facebook-e1550741138523-768x497.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1530px) 100vw, 1530px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Map of proposed China-Myanmar corridor. Image: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225597"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225598">There is no doubt that the revived China-Myanmar railroad project will also figure prominently in bilateral talks between Beijing and Naypyitaw. So far, few details have been made public about the project, including in regard to cost.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225603"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225604">It was first publicly revealed that the project had been revived when in June last year a Myanmar minister, Thaung Tun, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper that the construction of a railroad connecting Ruili in Yunnan with the central city of Mandalay “would start quite soon.”</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225606"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225607">The first 328-kilometer stretch of the railroad, connecting the southern Chinese cities of Kunming and Dali, went into operation in July last year, cutting travelling time from six to two hours. </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225610">Construction of the remaining 336 kilometers from Dali to the border town of Ruili began in 2011. It was scheduled to take six years but for reasons that are not entirely clear the completion date has been pushed back to 2022.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225613"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225614">On the Myanmar side, the China Railway Erguan Engineering Corporation, a state-owned holding company, has started a partial survey for a 431-kilometer railroad connection from Muse across the border from Ruili to Mandalay. But the line would not likely be commercially viable if it does not extend to the port at Kyaukphyu, situated nearly 400 kilometers from Mandalay.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225616"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225617">Ye Tun, a former Myanmar member of parliament from Thibaw, one of the towns along the proposed Muse-Mandalay railroad, told the Myanmar Times on February 1 that the route had to be complete in order for the Myanmar government to earn substantial revenues from the Kyaukphyu port and its proposed special economic zone.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225619"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225620">A railroad that originates in China and ends at Mandalay would not be of much use for trade. If the railroad is not extended to Kyaukphyu, “I worry that the port will be like one in Sri Lanka that China took over,” Ye Tun said in reference to the Sri Lankan port at Hambantota, which was funded mainly by loans from the Exim Bank of China. When those loans could not be repaid, Sri Lanka was forced to lease the port to China Port Holdings for 99 years.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_134672" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-134672" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Myanmar-Kyaukphyu-Rakhine-State-November-1-2012-e1550741243624.jpg" alt="An aerial view near Kyaukphyu, in western Myanmar Rakhine state after communal violence led to arson attacks on homes in a nearby village in 2012. Photo: AFP/Soe Than Win" width="1600" height="1062" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An aerial view near Kyaukphyu, in western Myanmar&#8217;s Rakhine state. Photo: AFP/Soe Than Win</figcaption></figure>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225622"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225623">China has proposed 24 projects under the CMEC-BRI scheme and Myanmar has so far agreed to accelerate work on nine of them, including the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, border trade zones in Kachin and Shan states opposite Yunnan, and an ambitious project for a “new city” adjacent to the old capital of Yangon that would cover an area twice the size of Singapore.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225625"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225626">The Myanmar news website Irrawaddy reported on February 19 that an estimated $2 billion will be spent on the initial stages of the projects, which notably do not include the China-Myanmar railroad. The report said that “experts are questioning how the infrastructural projects across Myanmar will be financed and have raised concerns about a debt trap. Despite these concerns, the government has yet to make public details of the CMEC.”</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225628"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225629">Suu Kyi stated on February 19 that the BRI “could bring opportunities to Myanmar and the region.” The question, however, is at what price. China may get the Indian Ocean access it desires, but Myanmar, which is already struggling to repay existing loans owed to China, may be left with billions of dollars in debt that some fear could undermine its ability to conduct an independent foreign policy.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225631"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225632">When under direct military rule and shunned by the West, from 1988 to 2011, Myanmar became what some cynics called “the 24th province of China.” </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225635">That’s why Myanmar’s previous military regime went to extraordinary lengths to lessen that dependence and open up to the West. </span></p>
<p><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1550632855343_225638">But now Myanmar appears to have moved back to square one from its short dalliance with diplomatic diversification: isolated vis-à-vis the West and reliant on China as its main patron and ally.</span></p>
The Hong Kong man woke his wife and complained that she had not folded his clothes
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/wife-stabs-husband-over-household-chores/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/wife-stabs-husband-over-household-chores/<p>Tuesday may have been Chinese Valentine’s Day, but for one couple living in Kowloon, Hong Kong, it was the day when a man&#8217;s third wife attacked him with a knife after a dispute over household chores.</p>
<p>The assault happened at around 10pm when the 60-year-old man surnamed Leung returned home to Oi Man Estate in Ho Man Tin, Sing Tao Daily reported. When he found his wife asleep, he woke her and asked why, instead of folding his clothes, she had left them in a corner.</p>
<p>His wife reportedly became so angry that she ran into the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife and allegedly stabbed Leung three times.</p>
<p>The couple struggled and when the knife fell to the floor, Leung stepped on it and called the police. <a href="http://static.stheadline.com/stheadline/news_res/2019/02/21/67894/i_273x340_082179335.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">He was sent to hospital</a> for medical treatment for minor injuries to his shoulder, hand and abdomen.</p>
<p>His wife was arrested for alleged wounding and was taken to the police station for questioning.</p>
<p>Leung said he would drop the case only if his wife showed her remorse and apologized.</p>
Filipino high school student was allegedly found in possession of drugs worth almost $110,000
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/student-arrested-in-cebu-anti-drugs-operation/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/student-arrested-in-cebu-anti-drugs-operation/<p class="p1">A 19-year-old Filipino high school student was arrested after authorities seized illegal drugs worth 5.7 million pesos (US$109,368) in Cebu City, Philippines.</p>
<p class="p1">On Wednesday afternoon, members of the regional police Drug Enforcement Group conducted a buy-bust operation in Barangay Sawang Calero in Cebu. According to Superintendent Glen Mayam, the student’s name was brought up while they were interrogating drug suspects who were arrested prior to the operation, <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/20/19/senior-high-student-timbog-sa-buy-bust-p57-milyong-halaga-ng-shabu-nasabat?fbclid=IwAR2eUvdOxYVm09mX4A6Q_imc-BHgwD1SH96H42g5UWXbTZdGEFm9ejApvvk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABS-CBN News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Mayam said the student, whose identity was not disclosed, was named as an alleged big time drug pusher who distributed illegal drugs such as methamphetamine to numerous provinces in Central Visayas.</p>
<p class="p1">The police confirmed that the student was a member of a large syndicate that sold illegal drugs. However, they did not provide the name of the syndicate nor other details about the group.</p>
<p class="p1">Authorities confiscated large packets of illegal drugs worth around 5.7 million pesos, and an investigation continues into the source of the drugs seized.</p>
<p class="p1">In the Philippines, the penalty for violating Republic Act No. 9165, or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, is life imprisonment or the death penalty. Offenders found guilty can also be fined from 500,000 to 10 million pesos.</p>
The illegal migrants got on board in Medan and traveled to waters off Selangor, Malaysia
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-smuggling-syndicate-busted/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-smuggling-syndicate-busted/<p>Sixteen Myanmar Rohingya and four Indonesians allegedly attempting to enter Malaysia illegally were arrested in waters off Kuala Selangor, on the country&#8217;s west coast, during the early hours of Monday, while three Indonesian men believed to be members of a human-trafficking syndicate in their country were also detained for further investigation.</p>
<p>At 2:30am on Monday, officers from the Bukit Aman Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smugglers (D7C) Division and the Selangor Marine Police intercepted a suspicious vessel that was heading toward the estuary of the Kuala Selangor River, the China Press reported.</p>
<p>A total of 20 illegal migrants were found on board, of whom 16 were Myanmar Rohingya – nine men, a four-year-old child and six women. The rest were Indonesians, three men and one woman.</p>
<p>The illegal migrants allegedly got on board in Medan, Sumatra, and traveled for two days and two nights before arriving in waters off Kuala Selangor.</p>
<p>Preliminary investigations suggested that the Rohingya, who had previously lived in a camp run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Aceh, fled from the camp because there was no work available for them.</p>
<p>Each of the Indonesians paid the syndicate 1 million rupiah (US$71) while the Rohingya were reportedly charged triple that amount per head.</p>
<p>All of the suspects and migrants were detained for further investigations under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Anti- Smuggling Act of 2007, Section 6 (1) (c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63, and Section 5 (2) of the same act.</p>
Two girls from Vietnam and Bangladeshi were among victims at an Ipoh entertainment center
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/tourists-among-six-killed-in-karaoke-lounge-fire/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/tourists-among-six-killed-in-karaoke-lounge-fire/<p>Six people – including at least three tourists – died in a fire that erupted in an entertainment center in Malaysia on Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>The blaze broke out around 5.40am on the fourth floor of an eight-story building located in Jalan Raja Dr Nazrin Shah in the northern city of Ipoh, <a href="https://borneobulletin.com.bn/six-die-in-fire-at-ipoh-entertainment-centre/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Borneo Bulletin</a> reported.</p>
<p>The Perak Fire and Rescue Department said six people were killed in the blaze, and two others critically injured. One of the victims had yet to be identified.</p>
<p>Authorities sent 39 firefighters to the scene within 10 minutes of receiving an alert at 5.49am.</p>
<p>Sayani Saidon, the acting director of the fire department, said two women from Vietnam – Nguyen Thi Trang, 19, and Nguyen Thi Thuy Dhong, 21 – and a Bangladeshi man were among those who died.</p>
<p>Two others were locals, identified as Tai Chee Kin, 37, and Lau Wai Hoong, 36. An unknown man was also found dead.</p>
<p>The bodies were found in a karaoke room, a washroom and an emergency exit. Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the fire.</p>
Migratory birds may have brought the virus into the country, and a number of pigs have died
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/african-swine-fever-makes-its-way-to-vietnam/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/african-swine-fever-makes-its-way-to-vietnam/<p>A number of outbreaks of African swine fever have been reported in northern Vietnam, with more than 200 pigs infected. A source at Vietnam’s Animal Health Department stated that several outbreaks were recorded in Hung Yen and Thai Binh provinces, VN Express reported.</p>
<p>More than 130 pigs were reported to have been infected by the highly contagious disease in Hung Yen and 123 in Thai Binh. The animals have since been put down, as there is no known treatment. The virus does not affect human health, but economic losses can be considerable.</p>
<p>Authorities blocked the sale and transportation of live pigs and pig products in the affected provinces. Farms and markets were sanitized as well.</p>
<p>Pham Van Dong, the head of the Animal Health Department, said the virus may have made its way to the country via migratory birds. Travelers bringing pig products from overseas could have been a source as well.</p>
<p>Farms affected by the virus will be able to get compensation of 38,000 dong (US$1.65) per kilogram of lost pigs. Those affected, however, are responsible for informing authorities on their own accord. Farmers have also been instructed to sanitize their farms in order to prevent the spread of the disease.</p>
<p>According to the World Organization for Animal Health, 20 countries and territories have reported cases of the African swine fever since 2017, with more than a million pigs being put down.</p>
All Filipino migrant workers must now contribute to the Social Security System after recent reforms
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/social-security-payments-are-now-mandatory/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/social-security-payments-are-now-mandatory/<p class="p1">Filipino migrant workers are now required to make monthly contributions to the national Social Security System to ensure they will be entitled to a pension fund and other benefits when they eventually return to live in their homeland.</p>
<p>The Social Security Act of 2018, known formally as Senate Bill 1753, widens the scope of the Social Security System to include compulsory coverage for workers abroad, the <a href="https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/02/18/new-sss-law-to-to-extend-better-social-security-protection-for-filipinos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Manila Bulletin</a> reported. It was recently signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte.</p>
<p>Contributions by migrant workers to the scheme were previously voluntary and only 500,000 have any cover. It is expected that the reforms will see this number grow to more than two million.</p>
<p>“Because contributions were voluntary for migrant workers in the old law, most workers, the majority of whom are in the Middle East, forget to contribute,” said Mark Roue Oliva, the Social Security System representative in Dubai. “So once they retire, they are not qualified to get a pension from the SSS.”</p>
<p>He said the government-run provident fund will benefit migrant workers both on land and at sea, including those in the United Arab Emirates, <a href="https://gulfnews.com/lifestyle/community/pension-scheme-for-filipinos-now-mandatory-1.62132076" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gulf News</a> reported. Oliva said the number of Filipinos working in the UAE was somewhere between 600,000 and one million, yet only 4,800 in Dubai and the northern emirates were contributing to the scheme.</p>
<p class="p1">Members of the SSS are eligible for a range of benefits apart from the lifetime pension, including salary loans and payments for sickness, retirement, maternity leave, disability, death and funeral costs.</p>
She felt a sharp pain on her left arm, after which she found a tiny hole on her skin
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-pricked-by-stranger-on-hk-street/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-pricked-by-stranger-on-hk-street/<p>A woman in Hong Kong called the police after being poked with a sharp object by a stranger on a street in Tin Shui Wai, New Territories, on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>At 11pm, the victim and a friend were taking a walk outside of Ginza Square on Tin Yan Road when they saw a man walking toward them, Oriental Daily reported. When the man walked passed the victim, she felt a sharp pain on her left arm and suspected that she had been pricked by a needle. <a href="https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20190221/photo/bkn-20190221012141703-0221_00822_001_04b.jpg?20190221133422" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A very small hole was left on her arm</a>.</p>
<p>Shocked by this attack, she called the police. After going to a hospital for a medical examination, she was advised to undergo blood tests for three months.</p>
<p>Hong Kong police classified the case as assault occasioning actual bodily harm. No one was immediately arrested.</p>
<p>The woman&#8217;s friend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WoYuenLong/posts/1965349193577706" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted about the incident on a Facebook group,</a> alerting residents of the area to be careful.</p>
<p>She recalled that the victim had suddenly screamed when the stranger walked past. Then the man stopped, looked at them and said “sorry” before walking away.</p>
<p>At that time, she said, she thought the man had groped the victim. She shouted at the man and asked him what did did. The man apologized again and ran off.</p>
<p>That was when the women found that the victim, who was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jacket at the time, had been pricked by a sharp object leaving a hole on her left arm.</p>
<p>The victim&#8217;s friend said the suspect was aged around 20 to 30 and was 170 centimeters tall. He wore a jacket and a backpack.</p>
Three men and a local accomplice face charges by Thai authorities
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnamese-held-in-thailand-for-fake-passports/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnamese-held-in-thailand-for-fake-passports/<p>Three Vietnamese men have been arrested in Thailand for alleged links to a ring forging passports for people travelling to the UK.</p>
<p>On February 16, Dang Trien Trung, 30, Pham Vang Hung, 28, and Le Viet Lan, 22, were arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok while leaving for Britain, <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/3-vietnamese-detained-in-thailand-for-passport-forgery-3883724.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VN Express</a> reported.</p>
<p>Authorities then searched their apartments, where they found more than 20 passports that were forged and altered with fake visa stamps.</p>
<p>A local man named Wichit was arrested near the Khao San Road tourist area shortly after was accused of being an accomplice in charge of selling the fake passports. Some 56,000 baht (US$1,800) was also confiscated from him.</p>
<p>The police charged Trung with the use of a forged passport, while the others were charged with forging visa stamps in passports for other people’s use.</p>
<p>According to a recent report issued by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, about one million citizens from Vietnam visited Thailand last year.</p>
Asia Foundation-Rappler study shows how Islamic State-aligned groups use Facebook to recruit new members to their extremist cause
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/facebook-has-a-terrorism-problem-in-the-philippines/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/facebook-has-a-terrorism-problem-in-the-philippines/<p>Fulan was approached over his social media posts indicating his devout Islamic beliefs. Aboud was targeted because of his online presence as a Muslim student leader in his local community.</p>
<p>Both young Filipinos, resident in the Philippines’ restive southern Mindanao region, were found and contacted over Facebook Messenger by anonymous Islamic State (ISIS) recruiters. While neither ultimately joined ISIS’ extremist cause, it’s unclear how many Filipinos have been recruited by the terror group’s tech-savvy efforts to connect with a new generation of potential jihadists.</p>
<p>Both Fulan and Aboud featured in a new study released by the Asia Foundation, a US-based think tank, and Rappler, a local online media outlet, that shows how ISIS is using Facebook to spread propaganda and bolster its militant ranks in Mindanao.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Understanding-Violent-Extremism-Messaging-and-Recruitment-on-Social-Media-in-the-Philippines.pdf">study</a>, entitled “Understanding Violent Extremism: Messaging and Recruitment Strategies on Social Media in the Philippines,” says the vast majority of extremist online activities are “opportunistic and unsophisticated” and that “the scope for online radicalization and recruitment follows pathways already identified as being influential in the Philippines.”</p>
<p>That entails highly localized messaging that touches on local grievances, often in dialects that allow for the publication and dissemination of extremist content that is not readily or easily understood by wider audiences, including by law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>While extremist posts in English and Tagalog are easier for authorities to track and delete, messages in local Moro dialects such as Maranao, Maguindanaoan and Tausug often slips through filters and other detection mechanisms that Facebook uses to screen objectionable content.</p>
<p>“Facebook is almost the exclusive theater in the Philippines through which extremist actors are able to grab the attention of local audiences and engage in dialogue with persons they’re seeking to influence,” the research says.</p>
<figure id="attachment_203484" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-203484" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Social-Media-Facebook-Technology-March-13-2015.jpg" alt="&quot;Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology,&quot; a company spokesman told Indian media, adding that a &quot;new small team is exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share.&quot; Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration" width="1600" height="1040" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Social-Media-Facebook-Technology-March-13-2015.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Social-Media-Facebook-Technology-March-13-2015-580x377.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Facebook&#8217;s logo reflected in a user&#8217;s eye. Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration</figcaption></figure>
<p>With as many as 60 million monthly Facebook users, the Philippines is frequently cited as the “social media capital of the world.” Facebook’s popularity in the Philippines, witnessed in over one billion total visits per month in late 2017, can be attributed in part to the fact that mobile phone users can access the platform even without paying for mobile data.</p>
<p>Facebook’s Audience Insights dashboard estimates as many as 10 million users in Mindanao. That penetration contributed to the fast and wide spread of highly viral extremist propaganda during the five-month siege of Mindanao’s Marawi City by ISIS-aligned Filipino militant groups in 2017.</p>
<p>Pro-ISIS groups used open social media not only to disseminate propaganda but also to contact ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the Asia Foundation-Rappler research shows.</p>
<p>Once connected, the groups often shifted to encrypted private conversations on secure messaging services such as Facebook’s WhatsApp. They later used more secure messaging services such as Telegram, according to the research.</p>
<p>When the Marawi siege started in May 2017, Telegram provided enough security and features to allow violent extremist groups one-way broadcasts that reached up to 10,000 viewers, the research found.</p>
<p>The Marawi siege also brought together a mix of computer-savvy college recruits from university campuses in Mindanao, including through Muslim student organizations and their alumni at Catholic institutions as well as at state universities and polytechnic institutes.</p>
<p>The siege uprooted over 350,000 civilians and left the core of the country’s only Islamic city in shambles. At least 1,100 people, mostly Islamic militants, were killed in the urban warfare operation that took a page from ISIS’ conflicts in the Middle East.</p>
<figure id="attachment_275117" style="width: 1278px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-275117 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Philippines-Islamic-State-Militants-Terrorism-2018-e1550737425838.jpg" alt="Islamic State fighters in a radicalization video clip targeting the Philippines. Photo: Youtube" width="1278" height="862" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Philippines-Islamic-State-Militants-Terrorism-2018-e1550737425838.jpg 1278w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Philippines-Islamic-State-Militants-Terrorism-2018-e1550737425838-768x518.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1278px) 100vw, 1278px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Islamic State fighters in a radicalization video clip targeting the Philippines. Photo: Youtube</figcaption></figure>
<p>When the siege started, Facebook was flooded with blurry images and videos of cloaked men carrying ISIS’ black flag well before mainstream media networks reported that state security forces and Islamist gunmen had clashed in Marawi’s main business district.</p>
<p>The ISIS-linked Maute Group also used Facebook to post video of a Catholic priest, Teresito Soganub, who it had taken hostage and who called on Duterte from captivity after the first clashes erupted to stop the military offensives and pull Filipino troops from the city.</p>
<p>“Do not use violence, because your enemies, they are ready to die for their religion. They are ready to die that their laws will be followed,” the priest said in a video addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte that Facebook eventually took down.</p>
<p>The research found that the spread of those viral materials has “diminished” since the siege ended, perhaps due to the killing or capture of those who disseminated the content, but that the existence of private networks means official efforts to eradicate violent extremism online will have only a “limited effect.”</p>
<p>That’s in part because online recruitment tactics have until now been poorly understood.</p>
<p>The Asia Foundation-Rappler study maps how ten ISIS-inspired Filipino militant groups recruit new adherents, starting with online offers of Arabic language lessons, to religious education, to indoctrination in violence to financial inducements to guerrilla training and swearing of allegiance.</p>
<p>The study emphasizes how social media “fuels an environment where offline worlds get reinforced online”, including through “closed special-interest groups to spam group members, drawing on limited shared connections between the recruiter and their target.”</p>
<p><img class="alignnone wp-image-134723 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Philippines-Terror-Groups-Abu-Sayyaf-Maute-Group-Islamic-State-May-26-2017-e1550737504924.jpg" alt="map-Philippines-Terror Groups-Abu Sayyaf-Maute Group-Islamic State-May 26-2017" width="1293" height="1137" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Philippines-Terror-Groups-Abu-Sayyaf-Maute-Group-Islamic-State-May-26-2017-e1550737504924.jpg 1293w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Philippines-Terror-Groups-Abu-Sayyaf-Maute-Group-Islamic-State-May-26-2017-e1550737504924-768x675.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1293px) 100vw, 1293px" /></p>
<p>So far, the government has reached for crude levers to repress ISIS’ recruitment. Duterte imposed martial law hours after the ISIS-aligned Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups, aided by foreign jihadists mostly from neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, attacked Marawi in a bid to establish a wilayat, or Islamic State province.</p>
<p>The Abu Sayyaf, Maute Group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and Ansar Al-Khilafa Philippines &#8211; all of which have pledged allegiance to Islamic State &#8211; continue to pose security threats in Mindanao and nationwide, according to the Philippine military.</p>
<p>These militant groups are now all bidding to rebuild their forces after sustaining heavy losses in the battle for Marawi and subsequent military operations on their bases, including in Maguindanao, Lanao de Sur, Basilan and Sulu provinces.</p>
<p>While less coherent than ISIS propaganda in the Middle East, catch phrases used in the Philippines to attract recruits include “widespread vulnerability, economic desperation, ineffective governance and ethnic marginalization” of the country’s minority Muslim population in the south, the research shows.</p>
<p>Nathan Shea, a senior program officer at the Asia Foundation’s Conflict and Fragility Program, said that simply removing offensive or extremist Facebook content will not be enough to stop the messaging and recruitment.</p>
<p>“Even when the original post is deleted, extremist messages and content can continue to be shared,” Shea wrote in the Asia Foundation’s weekly InAsia blog. “Meanwhile, those whose posts are censored or deleted may become isolated from more positive communities and begin to conduct their online activities in a secretive manner.”</p>
Govt to inject $6.8 billion into 12 state-run banks to boost their accounts
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indias-ailing-state-banks-get-another-lifeline/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indias-ailing-state-banks-get-another-lifeline/<p>The Indian government has decided to inject 482 billion rupees (about US$6.8 billion) into 12 ailing state banks to improve their balance sheets.</p>
<p>Most of the banks are currently under the <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/market/lifeline-for-psbs-govt-to-infuse-rs-48239-crore-into-12-state-run-lenders/1493769/">prompt corrective action </a>(PCA) framework formulated by the Reserve Bank of India due to their weak financial position.</p>
<p>The recapitalization will be done via bonds. With the latest round, the government will have pumped 1.89 trillion rupees ($26.6 billion) into state-run banks since it announced a recapitalization plan in October 2017.</p>
<p>The government claims it has rewarded better performing banks with a higher allocation to help them emerge from the PCA framework. Nearly one-third of the latest outlay will go to Allahabad Bank (90.9 billion rupees or $1.3 billion) and Corporation Bank (69 billion rupees or $983 million).</p>
<p>Two state banks – Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra – have already exited the PCA framework and they will receive capital of 46.4 billion rupees ($652 million) and 2 billion rupees ($28.8 million) respectively to boost their balance sheets.</p>
<p>The recapitalization will also help Punjab National Bank (59 billion rupees or $830 million), Union Bank (41 billion rupees or $578 million), Andhra Bank (32.6 billion rupees or $458 million) and Syndicate Bank (16 billion rupees or $225 million) avoid falling into the PCA framework.</p>
<p>Early last year, the <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/punjab-natl-bank-outlook/a-year-after-indias-biggest-bank-fraud-pnb-on-road-for-annual-profit-idINKCN1Q70DD">Punjab National Bank</a> was rocked by the biggest banking fraud in India&#8217;s history after diamond merchant Nirav Modi swindled the bank out of nearly $2 billion. However, the bank has improved its finances and posted a profit in the December quarter after it set aside funds to cover those losses.</p>
<p>The other banks to receive an allocation include Indian Overseas Bank (38 billion rupees or $535 million), Uco Bank (33.3 billion rupees or $468 million), United Bank (28.4 billion rupees or $399 million) and Central Bank (25.6 billion rupees or $360 million).</p>
<p>According to a Reserve Bank projection, the ratio of gross non-performing assets (NPA) in the banking system is expected to drop for the first time in almost a decade to 10.3% by the end of 2018-19, from 11.2% a year ago. This is mainly due to easing concerns about state banks&#8217; NPAs, which account for a huge proportion of the country&#8217;s bad loans.</p>
It was initially thought there had been a bomb blast, but authorities traced the cause to a pipe leak
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/six-people-injured-in-gas-explosion-at-mall/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/six-people-injured-in-gas-explosion-at-mall/<p>A leaking gas pipe has been blamed for an explosion at a shopping mall in West Jakarta that injured six people and damaged 40 food counters. Police investigations are continuing into the blast, which was initially thought to have been caused by a bomb.</p>
<p>Emergency services were called to a food court in the Taman Anggrek Mall at about 10:20am on Wednesday after the explosion and treated six people aged between 29 and 44 years, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/20/explosion-at-mall-injures-6-people-damages-40-food-counters.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Jakarta Post</a> reported. Police did not release information on their conditions.</p>
<p>One witness, a 51-year-old called Fauzi, said he heard a hissing noise above the Soto Betwai food counter at around 10:15am, and turned off the gas handle on the counter. However, gas had already escaped and a fire broke out.</p>
The Philippine government has appealed to Israel to deport Filipino overstayers in an orderly and benign manner
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/manila-helps-filipinos-who-overstay-in-israel/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/manila-helps-filipinos-who-overstay-in-israel/<p class="p1">The Philippine government will be providing reintegration assistance to Filipinos who are deported from Israel after being caught overstaying.</p>
<p class="p1">In a <a href="https://dfa.gov.ph/dfa-news/statements-and-advisoriesupdate/19667-statement-on-the-deportation-of-filipino-migrants-from-israel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the issue was raised in a meeting between Leslie Baja, the Philippines’ foreign assistant secretary for Middle East and African Affairs, and Gilad Cohen, deputy director general at the Israeli foreign ministry.</p>
<p class="p1">“Assistant Secretary Baja requested Director General Cohen, in the spirit of friendly relations between the Philippines and Israel, to treat overstaying Filipinos who need to be repatriated in an orderly and (benign) manner, especially since children may be involved,” the DFA said.</p>
<p class="p1">Baja added that Filipino workers have a responsibility to observe the immigration laws of the host government.</p>
<p class="p1">The appeal was made after it was reported that dozens of Filipino migrant workers and their children have been arrested for overstaying and face deportation. The Population, Immigration and Border Authority in Israel said the Filipino nationals are set for deportation in July or August this year.</p>
<p class="p1">Some Filipino migrant workers have given birth while working in Israel as carers looking after the elderly and others with special needs. However, many of these Filipino children are illegal residents as Israeli law only grants citizenship to children born to Israeli citizens.</p>
<p class="p1">The DFA said the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv is coordinating with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration for additional welfare and reintegration assistance.</p>
<p class="p1">Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/israel-to-deport-filipino-workers-and-children/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel to deport Filipino workers and children</a></p>
Towering mud homes of 16th-century city of Shibham are in urgent need of repair after years of wartime neglect
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/yemens-manhattan-of-the-desert-at-risk-of-ruin/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/yemens-manhattan-of-the-desert-at-risk-of-ruin/<p>The ancient city of Shibam, dubbed the <span class="s1">‘Manhattan </span>of the Desert<span class="s1">’</span> for its towering skyline, is in critical need of repair after years of neglect during Yemen<span class="s1">’</span>s devastating conflict.</p>
<p>Down the narrow city streets, a look inside the house of Faisal Mohammed Batheb shows the urgency of the problem. Cracks have spread from the floor to the ceiling and beyond. The upper floors are no longer fit for habitation.</p>
<p>The six-storey home is among 470 houses that make up the fabulous walled city of Shibam, a 16th-century settlement built entirely of mud and located in a long valley in the southeastern province of Hadramout.</p>
<p>“Shibam houses are strong even with cracks,” the 60-year-old retired teacher insists as he points to the cracks inside his house.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313992" style="width: 471px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-313992 " src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Faisal-Mohammed-Batheb-a-retired-teacher-says-cracks-have-increased-inside-his-house-due-to-lack-of-upkeep.-He-thinks-the-house-will-not-cave-in-any-time-soon-but-urged-his-government-to-him-help-e1550653743808.jpg" alt="" width="471" height="711" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Faisal-Mohammed-Batheb-a-retired-teacher-says-cracks-have-increased-inside-his-house-due-to-lack-of-upkeep.-He-thinks-the-house-will-not-cave-in-any-time-soon-but-urged-his-government-to-him-help-e1550653743808.jpg 3264w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Faisal-Mohammed-Batheb-a-retired-teacher-says-cracks-have-increased-inside-his-house-due-to-lack-of-upkeep.-He-thinks-the-house-will-not-cave-in-any-time-soon-but-urged-his-government-to-him-help-e1550653743808-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Faisal-Mohammed-Batheb-a-retired-teacher-says-cracks-have-increased-inside-his-house-due-to-lack-of-upkeep.-He-thinks-the-house-will-not-cave-in-any-time-soon-but-urged-his-government-to-him-help-e1550653743808-1568x2367.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 471px) 100vw, 471px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Faisal Mohammed Batheb, a retired teacher, says cracks are a growing problem in his house due to lack of upkeep. Photo: Saeed al-Batati</figcaption></figure>
<p>Despite Batheb’s timid assurance that the house is not at risk of collapse, the damage to the upper two floors of the structure proves the opposite. Heavy rains seeped into the house, creating a hole in the roof and eroding the walls. Cracks also expanded in the bathrooms and along the wooden roof.</p>
<p>“I am not the only person who lives in a decaying house. There are many other people who live in houses worse than this,” the father of five children said. Dozens of other homes in Shibam are cracking because of a lack of upkeep.</p>
<p>Shabam, a UNESCO World Heritage <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/192">site</a>, is comprised of nearly 500 towering dwellings encircled by a fortified wall.</p>
<p>The population of this mini-Manhattan numbers only about 3,000 people, according to the General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities in Yemen (GOPHCY). Its inhabitants are struggling to make a living as farmers or government employees or by doing laborious manual jobs such as construction.</p>
<h4>Neglect</h4>
<p>Historic cities in Yemen like Shibam have been left to struggle for survival since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis seized control of the capital, prompting neighboring Saudi Arabia to lead a military coalition in March 2015 to restore the internationally-recognized government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to power.</p>
<p>Yemeni and foreign workers who lived in Shibam decamped to the capital Sanaa or fled the country due to the ensuing insecurity as vital funds that kept regular maintenance operations running dried up. The negligence has had a visible impact on the city’s houses and residents.</p>
<p>The outer layers of clay on almost all houses have become eroded and visible cracks have spread across the structures.</p>
<p>Two engineers from the GOPHCY who inspected Batheb’s house during our interview said that in only four days their team had documented 15 houses out of 50 that need urgent upkeep or face collapse, posing a threat to residents and other standing houses.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314410" style="width: 4928px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-314410" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Shibam-was-placed-on-the-World-Heritage-List-in-1982.-Due-to-its-outstanding-towering-buildings-Freya-Stark-nicknamed-it-“the-Manhattan-of-the-desert_.-Saeed-Al-Batati_-Asia-Times3.jpg" alt="" width="4928" height="3264" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Shibam-was-placed-on-the-World-Heritage-List-in-1982.-Due-to-its-outstanding-towering-buildings-Freya-Stark-nicknamed-it-“the-Manhattan-of-the-desert_.-Saeed-Al-Batati_-Asia-Times3.jpg 4928w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Shibam-was-placed-on-the-World-Heritage-List-in-1982.-Due-to-its-outstanding-towering-buildings-Freya-Stark-nicknamed-it-“the-Manhattan-of-the-desert_.-Saeed-Al-Batati_-Asia-Times3-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Shibam-was-placed-on-the-World-Heritage-List-in-1982.-Due-to-its-outstanding-towering-buildings-Freya-Stark-nicknamed-it-“the-Manhattan-of-the-desert_.-Saeed-Al-Batati_-Asia-Times3-1568x1039.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 4928px) 100vw, 4928px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The Shibam skyline has earned the city the nickname, &#8216;Manhattan of the Desert&#8217;</figcaption></figure>
<h4>Alarming collapse</h4>
<p>In early February, almost four meters of the wall of the city collapsed, intensifying concerns about the risks facing the ancient settlement after years without maintenance.</p>
<p>For residents, the incident was a blessing in disguise. Local government officials and journalists trickled into the city to inspect the crumbled wall. Local journalists spoke on television about the risks facing the city.</p>
<p>Standing near the wall, Arfan Faraj, a 61-year- old builder, told Asia Times he was among the many local draftsmen who replaced the city’s wall in 1985. He warned that the wall is at risk of collapse, as are the city’s houses.</p>
<p>“The wall has not only protected the city from predators but propped up the houses. If the wall collapses, the houses will follow,” he said.</p>
<p>For decades, regular upkeep has been funded by the Yemeni and German governments and carried out by local builders such as Arfan Faraj. When the flow of money came to a halt, builders lost an important source of income and a big opportunity for them to pass down their skills to their offspring.</p>
<h4><strong>Terrorism vs tourism</strong></h4>
<p>The city of Shibam has largely remained unaffected by the current bloody fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government as state forces managed to stave off Houthi advances outside the central province of Maib, hundreds of kilometers away.</p>
<p>But local Al Qaeda and ISIS militants exploited the army’s loss in Wadi Hadramout by launching deadly attacks against army checkpoints and official convoys on the main road between Shibam and Seiyun. The attack that did the most damage to the city’s buildings was in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-qaeda/islamic-state-claims-yemen-attack-idUSKCN0T910720151120" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-qaeda/islamic-state-claims-yemen-attack-idUSKCN0T910720151120&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550663225743000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFJPWWD77vXpVy41Ax-t4gUbLBsjQ">November</a> 2015. Residents said a car laden with explosives rammed into a military convoy outside the city’s wall, setting off a thunderous explosion that rocked the city and caused deep rifts in houses. Residents who heard the explosion said it shook the foundations of the city and tremors were felt everywhere.</p>
<p>Hassan Aydeed, the director of Shibam’s GOPHCY office, told Asia Times that 10 houses were immediately evacuated and repaired by local authorities.</p>
<p>“Repeated explosions and armed clashes have negatively impacted Shibam’s buildings,” he said, adding that natural occurrences such as heavy rains and flooding also continue to pose a threat to the city.</p>
<p>“We appeal to the Yemeni government to take responsibility for this world heritage city before it collapses. Our second message is to international organizations to quickly intervene in the restoration of the city&#8217;s buildings,” Aydeed said.</p>
<p>The number of tourists has begun to dwindle since 2009 when <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/16/yemen.bombing.alqaeda/index.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/16/yemen.bombing.alqaeda/index.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550663225744000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFb93Vocb01piifBhZUfzsZdFUEhQ">Al Qaida</a> killed several Korean tourists outside the city. Now, the city’s narrow streets, which used to alive with hundreds of tourists every day, are almost deserted except for a few children playing football or roaming sheep.</p>
<p>“If the negligence goes on, we will be forced into leaving the city,” Batheb said, his voice choking.</p>
Filipina domestic worker who suffered two heart attacks died in her employer’s Hong Kong home
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-worker-heart-attack-victim-flown-home/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-worker-heart-attack-victim-flown-home/<p>The body of a 55-year-old Filipina domestic worker who died of a heart attack after collapsing in her employer’s home in Hong Kong in February, was flown back to the Philippines last Friday.</p>
<p>Donna M. Avanceña, who had worked for her employer for 23 years, was rushed to Ruttonjee Hospital by ambulance at dawn on Feb 2 after collapsing twice in her employer’s home, <a href="http://www.sunwebhk.com/2019/02/pinay-who-died-of-heart-attack-flown.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sunwebhk.com reported</a>. She died shortly after arriving at the hospital.</p>
<p>Eleanor Javier, 60, who along with Avanceña and her niece Aida Ajihil worked for a 99-year-old employer on Kennedy Road, said they were “closer than sisters” and were happy as their employers treated them like family.</p>
<p>Avanceña never complained of having a heart problem, nor did she tell Javier or other friends of any health issues. However 11 years ago, Avanceña survived Stage 3 breast cancer.</p>
<p>Avanceña’s body was accompanied from Hong Kong to Manila by her elder sister Ligaya, also a domestic worker.</p>
<p>Danny Baldon, officer of the Consulate’s assistance to nationals section, said the employer paid for the repatriation and agreed to pay a long service award of HK$73,000 (US$9,301) to Avanceña.</p>
<p>Avanceña was married with a 14-year-old daughter. Her husband is jobless.</p>
<p>Her family will receive a total of PhP135,000 (US$2,597) death benefit, funeral assistance plus livelihood assistance for the husband. Her daughter will be granted a monthly high school stipend and a college scholarship.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-domestic-worker-dies-at-employers-home-in-hong-kong/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read: Filipina domestic worker dies at employer’s home in Hong Kong</a></p>
Alleged fight between Filipino fisherman and two compatriots leaves one dead and another badly injured
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-runs-amok-on-indian-ocean-fishing-boat/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-runs-amok-on-indian-ocean-fishing-boat/<p>A Filipino fisherman has been accused of killing a fellow crewman and severely injuring another – both Filipino – on a Taiwan-registered fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday. Reports said the violence prompted remaining crewmen to flee the vessel.</p>
<p>Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency received a distress message at about 3am on February 20 from the Taiwanese captain Chen Chen-mao, reporting an incident on his vessel &#8216;Wen Peng&#8217;, which was around 1,540 nautical miles from Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, the China Daily News reported.</p>
<p>The vessel, which set off from Ch&#8217;ien-chen Fishing Harbor in Kaohsiung on January 29, reportedly had a crew of 24 – 10 Filipinos, 11 Indonesians and three Taiwanese – plus the 57-year-old captain.</p>
<p>For reasons unknown, a fight broke out between a Filipino crew member and two compatriots, resulting in one being stabbed to death and the other severely injured. The body of the dead fisherman was allegedly thrown into the sea.</p>
<p>The alleged attacker, who may have been emotionally unstable, ordered the rest of the crew to jump into the sea. Twelve crew members complied but were able to be rescued later. Four were picked up by the fishing boat &#8216;Hung Fu 88&#8217;, while the remaining eight were picked up by the Australian-registered boat &#8216;Stahla&#8217;.</p>
<p>The captain and two Taiwanese crew members were reportedly safe and awaiting rescue after locking themselves inside the ship&#8217;s bridge. Other crew members were not believed to have been injured.</p>
Surveillance footage showed the Filipino bartender peering under toilet cubicle doors
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-arrested-after-peeping-in-ladies-room/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-arrested-after-peeping-in-ladies-room/<p>Police arrested a Filipino man for alleged loitering after a surveillance camera caught him peeking under cubicle doors in the ladies’ room of a shopping mall in Quarry Bay on Hong Kong Island.</p>
<p>The suspect, a 43-year-old man said to be a bartender, was arrested by police officers on Tuesday morning, Sing Pao reported.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/eva.ho.984/videos/o.526250620774264/10218035922160225/?type=2&amp;theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surveillance camera footage</a> being circulated on social media on Sunday showed a woman entering the ladies’ room in Manly Plaza on King’s Road, after which a man suddenly appeared and stopped the door from closing. The man then left, but returned a few seconds later and followed the woman. Inside the ladies&#8217; room, he was seen squatting, appearing to peek under toilet cubicle doors.</p>
<p>After half a minute, the man left, just before a woman emerged from the toilet cubicle.</p>
<p>Police officers arrested the suspect on Westland Road near Taikoo Place for alleged loitering. It is understood that the suspect works in a nearby pub.</p>
The Jordanian man and his Filipina partner charged job applicants for non-existent overseas jobs
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/fake-recruiters-scam-filipinos-out-of-76800/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/fake-recruiters-scam-filipinos-out-of-76800/<p class="p1">A Jordanian man and his Filipino live-in partner have been arrested and accused of cheating around 100 victims by posing as recruitment agents and charging them to arrange non-existent jobs in Dubai.</p>
<p class="p1">On Monday, the two suspects, identified<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>as Ali Moh Khalil Tarrish and Myrla Olor, were arrested at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Manila, Philippines by operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/685455/jordanian-filipina-partner-arrested-for-illegal-recruitment/story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GMA News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The couple were reportedly waiting to board a flight to Davao in an attempt to avoid arrest. According to the NBI, they allegedly took money from around 100 would-be migrant workers by promising them employment as cleaners, waitresses, delivery personnel, janitors and drivers in Dubai.</p>
<p class="p1">They were picked up by the authorities following the arrest of one of their alleged accomplices, Conchita Paculba, in another operation. Two other alleged accomplices, Virginia Adling and Mel Madera, are still at large.</p>
<p class="p1">The NBI said the Filipina suspect demanded 25,000 to 32,000 pesos (US$480 to $614) for placement and processing fees, but she and Tarrish “repeatedly failed” to provide jobs to applicants. During the course of the fake recruitment scam, the couple reportedly took around four million pesos ($76,800) from victims.</p>
<p class="p1">The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said that Tarrish and Olor are not licensed recruiters, and that Tarrish also had a standing arrest warrant for fraud. The two face charges of fraud and of violating the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.</p>
Until now, claimants had to remain in Hong Kong until their case was heard
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/tribunal-allows-worker-to-testify-via-video-link/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/tribunal-allows-worker-to-testify-via-video-link/<p>In a landmark decision, the Hong Kong Labour Tribunal on Tuesday decided for the first time to allow a former domestic worker to testify via video link from the Philippines.</p>
<p>Timon Shum, Labour Tribunal Presiding Officer, is to allow a union officer to represent a claimant in court while the claimant gives testimony via video link from the Philippines. Former Filipina domestic worker Joenalyn D. Mallorca is suing her former employer Ng Mei Shuen for a total of around HK$86,000 (US$10,957) in damages, according to <a href="http://forjusticewithoutborders.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Justice-Without-Borders-Press-Release-Video-Conference-Testimony-for-Migrant-Workers.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0Bwa0qYtZNEoOM0t8Z8ULss8F8jUU9hv0FPb7HFYSEfVnANX67lfwSjAc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a release from Justice Without Borders</a>.</p>
<p>Until now, workers allegedly victimized by employers in alleged cases of unfair dismissal, nonpayment of wages and illegal deductions, had to remain in Hong Kong as they had to be present, in person, at the tribunal court.</p>
<p>The processing of claims can drag on for months, forcing workers who remained in Hong Kong, unable to take on work while they awaited their day in court to live in shelters operated churches or support groups.</p>
<p>Many workers had to make the difficult decision whether to miss out on earning income while pursuing claims or returning home and giving up their rights altogether, said Mr. Douglas MacLean, Executive Director of Justice Without Borders.</p>
<p>The group said the landmark decision gives workers “real hope that they can pursue justice for common employment violations, even after they leave the city.”</p>
<p>Claimants can now get on with their lives without giving up their rights to justice. It also means employers cannot escape their responsibilities by dragging their feet until their former employees go home, the group said.</p>
<p>The hearing for Mallorca will be held at the Technology Court in West Kowloon from September 16 to 19.</p>
<p>Shiella Grace Estrada, Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions secretary, had been allowed to represent the claimant in court.</p>
<p>Mallorca filed a case at the Labour Tribunal against her employer after she was dismissed in September 2017, hongkongnews.com.hk reported.</p>
<p>However, she had to go back to the Philippines in December 2017 to take care of her young children and her elderly mother who was diagnosed with cancer.</p>
<p>The Labour Department had offered to shoulder her expenses for her to come back to Hong Kong and testify but, besides taking care of her children and sick mother, she cannot afford to be absent for a long time from her factory job in Laguna.</p>
Police found 13 women forced to do sex work in a converted shipping container by a gang in Johor
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnamese-women-rescued-from-container-brothel/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnamese-women-rescued-from-container-brothel/<p>Malaysian police rescued 13 women from Vietnam and Indonesia late on Sunday night who were said to be victims of sexual exploitation by a gang in Johor.</p>
<p>The women, aged in their 20s and 30s, were found inside a modified shipping container which had been split into 12 rooms where they were forced to do sex work with customers.</p>
<p>Police from Bukit Aman’s Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smugglers (D7C) Division raided a location on the Tanjung Kupang Road in Gelang Patah, Johor just before midnight on February 17.</p>
<p>Eleven of the women came from Vietnam, while the other two were Indonesian, The China Press reported.</p>
<p>Police arrested a 45-year-old local man, who was believed to be the owner of the premises, plus two accomplices – another Malaysian and a Cambodian man – at the scene. Officers seized suspected revenue of 28,050 ringgit (US$6,888) in cash, two mobile phones, 107 condoms and a book noting daily transaction entries as evidence.</p>
<p>Two Indonesian men and two Bangladeshi men were also arrested for engaging in illicit sexual activities.</p>
<p>Preliminary inquiries found that the gang had been active in the area for four months, targeting constructions workers and offering sexual services as cheap as 80 ringgit (US$20) per transaction.</p>
<p>Those arrested were detained at the Iskandar Puteri District Police Headquarters, where they were faced inquiries about breaches of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Anti-Smugglers Act 2007 (Atipsom).</p>
Fluent in Swahili, Yang Fenglan operated a million-dollar ivory smuggling ring in east Africa
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-ivory-queen-jailed-in-tanzania/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-ivory-queen-jailed-in-tanzania/<p>A Chinese businesswoman known as the “Ivory Queen” in Tanzania has been jailed for smuggling elephant tusks.</p>
<p>Yang Fenglan, 69, was accused of running one of the biggest ivory-smuggling rings in Africa responsible for smuggling US$2.5 million worth of elephant tusks, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47294715" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a> reported. She reportedly oversaw the smuggling of about 800 pieces of ivory from the east African nation to the Far East from 2000 to 2014.</p>
<p>A court in Dar es Salaam, the country&#8217;s main city, ordered her property to be repossessed. Yang had been under investigation ever since she was arrested after a high-speed car chase.</p>
<p>A businesswoman who owned a Chinese restaurant and an investment company in Dar es Salaam, Yang had been living in Tanzania since the 1970s. Fluent in Swahili, she served as vice-president for the China-Africa Business Council of Tanzania.</p>
<p>Campaigners for environmental protection saw the arrest as a turning point as Yang had been playing a pivotal role in the illegal ivory trade.</p>
<p>On February 19, the Kisutu Court Magistrate Huruma Sahidi sentenced her to 15 years in prison. Two Tanzanian men were also given the same sentence.</p>
<p>Investigators said Yang was a key link between poachers in East Africa and buyers in China for more than a decade. Tanzania was said to have lost 60% of its elephants during that time. So her conviction has delighted wildlife groups and conservationists.</p>
Tokyo’s latest trade figures paint a grim story for the region
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/plunge-in-japanese-exports-point-to-dark-year/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/plunge-in-japanese-exports-point-to-dark-year/<p>China grows 6% year after year regardless of whether supply and demand match the numbers that statisticians produce to make President Xi Jinping happy.</p>
<p>Yet there’s no massaging the dramatic <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201902200033.html">China-driven slowdown</a> hitting Asia, where exports are down, on average, 13% year-on-year. Those downshifts from South Korea to Singapore to Australia belie Xi’s reassurances that China will continue to power ahead in 2019.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most damning rebuttal to date comes from Tokyo. Though China has long since surpassed Tokyo’s gross domestic product, Japan’s $4.9-trillion economy can portend major growth shifts. Just-published figures show that in January, Japanese exports to China plunged 17.4%.</p>
<p>And as per the same data, Japan’s 8.4% drop in overall overseas shipments left the country with the kind of trade deficit few policymakers saw coming.</p>
<p>In fact, Japan’s deficit exploded by 49% in January from a year earlier. That suggests the collateral damage from Donald Trump’s assault on Chinese trade is having an intensifying and accelerating effect on Asia’s prospects.</p>
<h4><strong>Things could get worse</strong></h4>
<p>Even as export engines sputter, governments are looking at a year in which US President Trump might raise the ante. There’s little evidence that Xi’s Communist Party is about to cave in trade negotiations after the March 1 deadline for new tariffs.</p>
<p>Nor does anyone – not even Trump, probably – know if Washington is going to slap taxes on the imports of cars and auto parts. If he does, the blow to Asia’s supply chains would be immediate and painful.</p>
<p>Raising the stakes further is the fact that Japan’s trade data shows that Tokyo’s surplus with Washington rose for the first time in seven months. Even worse: That 5.1% jump was mostly in the car sector, which is a particular Trump obsession. This news alone could have Trump prodding his negotiators to move forward on bilateral trade talks.</p>
<p>Another potential tripwire: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj-idUSKCN1Q80B6">rising concern at the Bank of Japan&#8217;s</a> headquarters. On Tuesday, BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda surprised markets with hints that Tokyo might act to weaken the yen. On Wednesday, news of the giant export drop showed why he’s so spooked by the about-face in conditions.</p>
<p>During his six years at the helm, Kuroda has been as reticent and cautious a central banker as you’ll find anywhere.</p>
<h4><strong>BOJ’s shock news</strong></h4>
<p>Hence, markets’ astonishment to hear Kuroda tell parliament that the BOJ might need to switch on the stimulus machine again. He even detailed what his team might do – from increasing asset purchases to lowering bond yields. Sure, he couched it in macroeconomic terms. Action might come, he stressed, if the economy and inflation were affected by a rising exchange rate.</p>
<p>Thing is, the latest <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Singapores-economic-growth-slows-due-to-Chinas-difficulties-46265.html">precipitous drop</a> in exports shows that is very much the case. It far exceeded the consensus view of economists for a roughly 5% decline. At the very least, the downshift silences the wishful thinkers hoping for a Japanese snapback from the second half of 2018. It turns out the 2.5% drop in annualized third-quarter growth could set the tone for what’s ahead in 2019.</p>
<p>Any move by Japan to weaken the yen would enrage Trump, who’s been <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/30/powell-says-the-fed-did-not-change-course-on-interest-rates-in-response-to-trump.html">browbeating his Federal Reserve</a> to stop raising interest rates. If the BOJ provokes Trump, expect the US Treasury Department to make it known it favors a weaker dollar. That would put the Korean won, Chinese yuan and other Asian currencies under upward pressure, producing new headwinds.</p>
<p>There’s ample blame to go around, of course. After Asia’s crisis in 1997, governments from Korea to Indonesia to the Philippines to Thailand pledged to wean economies off exports. Had they acted faster and more boldly to develop stronger domestic demand-led growth engines, the region wouldn’t be so vulnerable to US actions.</p>
<p>That goes, too, for Japan. Since 2008, when the “Lehman shock” slammed Asia anew, Tokyo pledged to create a vibrant services industry to supplement industrial exports. All Japan did, though, was ride on China’s coat-tails. Voracious mainland demand for the “Made in Japan” label deadened the urgency to recalibrate <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-slowdown-and-world-economy">growth drivers</a>.</p>
<p>Yet here Asia is, caught in the crossfire between a mercantilist American economy and a lopsided Chinese one. Japan’s trade numbers show that the incoming is only just beginning.</p>
Visiting crown prince discusses security with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Kashmir attack
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-india-to-step-up-anti-terror-pressure/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-india-to-step-up-anti-terror-pressure/<p>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged on Wednesday to step up pressure on countries that fuel terrorism.</p>
<p>They made the vow as fallout from a suicide bomb attack that India has blamed on Pakistan overshadowed the latest leg of the crown prince&#8217;s Asian tour, which is aimed at boosting the Gulf kingdom&#8217;s tarnished image in the wake of the Khashoggi affair.</p>
<p>Modi did not mention Pakistan – a key Saudi ally – as he again condemned the &#8220;barbaric attack&#8221; in Kashmir last week that killed at least 40 paramilitaries.</p>
<p>&#8220;To tackle this menace effectively, we agreed that there is a need to increase all possible pressure on countries supporting terrorism in any way,&#8221; Modi said after talks with the crown prince.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is extremely important to eliminate the terror infrastructure and stop support to terrorists and their supporters.&#8221;</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s de facto leader, who arrived in Delhi from Pakistan, where he had offered to help the neighbors ease tensions, responded that &#8220;terrorism and extremism is a common concern for India and Saudi Arabia.&#8221;</p>
<p>The prince, whose country accuses Iran of backing militant attacks, added: &#8220;I want to state that we are ready to cooperate with India in every way, including through intelligence sharing.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said India and all &#8220;neighboring countries must work together.&#8221;</p>
<p>The crown prince, on his first major tour since a scandal erupted over the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October, also signed joint accords on industry and culture, but announced no major deals.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
The five-year-old’s adventure in a Shandong train station earned her distracted dad a reprimand
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/girl-filmed-climbing-through-x-ray-scanner/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/girl-filmed-climbing-through-x-ray-scanner/<p>Security-camera footage at a train station in eastern China caught a little girl climbing through an X-ray scanner while her parents were distracted. The footage, filmed at the Daming Lake Station on February 12 in Jinan, Shandong, shows the five-year-old girl climbing on to the conveyor belt of an X-ray machine for scanning luggage while a woman is putting her luggage on it, a local television station reported.</p>
<p>About three seconds later, the girl emerges from the scanner and walks down the conveyor belt by herself. The whole incident goes completely unnoticed by the girl’s parents.</p>
<p>Subsequently, a guard on duty rushed to the scanner. Soon after, the girl’s father arrived on the scene as well, and was reprimanded by the guard, who said the radiation could have been harmful to the child and that the man should take better care of his children.</p>
<p>The father apologized and explained that he got distracted while he was having his ticket checked.</p>
<p>A railway security staffer said the machine, made for luggage only, could harm any person going through it. In addition, gaps inside the machine could have been detrimental for the girl if she had gotten any body parts stuck in them.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kEV2a-X09tk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
Employer reportedly barred the Indonesian worker from leaving the house and failed to pay her
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/home-at-last-after-years-of-abuse-in-jordan/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/home-at-last-after-years-of-abuse-in-jordan/<p>An Indonesian domestic worker who was kept isolated and unpaid for years in Jordan has returned home. Diah Anggraini, 36, lost contact with her family in October 2006 after she left for Jordan. From 2006 to 2018, she was denied her rights as a worker and as a human being – her rights to free movement and to fair payment, as well as being denied any contact with her family.</p>
<p>Andy Rachmianto, Indonesia’s ambassador to Jordan, said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KemnakerRI/posts/1081827962001673" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> that Diah claimed to have been treated inhumanely and being unpaid. She had to run away in order to return home.</p>
<p>The Indonesian government was able to locate her after investigating the situation with the assistance of multiple groups. In December, results from the investigation indicated that the woman had been undocumented since 2014.</p>
<p>A release by the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower issued last week pointed out that Diah was unable to speak Indonesian properly after not speaking it for years. She was given shelter by the Indonesian Embassy in Amman as the authorities tried to get compensation for her.</p>
<p>Diah’s ex-employer and the embassy made a deal that got her 127 million rupiah (US$9,000) in lieu of 12 years of wages, about two-thirds of what she was owed.</p>
<p>While living at the embassy, Diah studied the Indonesian language and took a health-massage class that the government offered her as a new career option for when she returns home.</p>
<p>On Monday, Diah finally returned home to Indonesia, with the opportunity of a fresh start.</p>
Despite very hefty room rates, guests are flocking to the luxurious complex built in an abandoned quarry
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shanghais-deeply-rewarding-hotel-experience/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shanghais-deeply-rewarding-hotel-experience/<p>The world&#8217;s lowest-lying hotel opened in Shanghai&#8217;s Songjiang district late last year.</p>
<p>The five-star InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland has only two floors above ground level, with 16 floors underground and two floors underwater with an aquarium. It is also dubbed a &#8220;quarry hotel&#8221; because it was built on the side of an 88-meter deep, water-filled quarry.</p>
<p>The luxurious complex, which is also known as the &#8220;Deep Pit Hotel,&#8221; has 336 guest rooms and suites offering a panoramic view of the former Shenkeng quarry, virtually a giant hole dug into a sweeping plain. Each room boasts curved balconies where guests can enjoy views of waterfalls cascading from the surrounding cliffs.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-314101" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/世茂深坑洲際酒店.gif" alt="" width="400" height="224" /></p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-314099" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/9635403.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="604" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/9635403.jpg 1000w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/9635403-768x464.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/9635403-300x180.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></p>
<figure id="attachment_314100" style="width: 826px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314100" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Webh_C_ykHFh_C_yF4SjUjebh_C_ybVH8_P_94M1UgOfbuF14bbM4wNuNbMKDKMwbwUbph_C_yGWxJ.jpg" alt="" width="826" height="463" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Webh_C_ykHFh_C_yF4SjUjebh_C_ybVH8_P_94M1UgOfbuF14bbM4wNuNbMKDKMwbwUbph_C_yGWxJ.jpg 826w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Webh_C_ykHFh_C_yF4SjUjebh_C_ybVH8_P_94M1UgOfbuF14bbM4wNuNbMKDKMwbwUbph_C_yGWxJ-768x430.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 826px) 100vw, 826px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Views of Shanghai&#8217;s &#8220;pit hotel.&#8221; Photos: Handouts, China News Service</figcaption></figure>
<p>Local papers in Shanghai have reported that the hotel is constantly overbooked, so much so that its operator has stopped accepting walk-in check-ins at the counter.</p>
<p>Of course, you will need a deep pocket to dive deep into the one-of-a-kind experience the hotel offers. The standard room rate is 3,600 yuan (US$530) per night.</p>
<p>“I designed many different types of buildings in the UK, Europe, Dubai, and so on but this one was totally different and became almost [my] life work, so that’s why I’m saying it’s probably the most important building that I have designed,” said chief architect Martin Jochman, who is known for the sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab skyscraper in Dubai.</p>
<p>The team faced delays and a host of technical challenges, including adhering to strict earthquake regulations and maintaining water levels.</p>
<p>The developer of the hotel is the Hong Kong-based Shimao Group, which hails the project as an ambitious architectural and engineering feat.</p>
More cities will see a downward adjustment and the decrease will vary from city to city
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/loan-interest-on-first-homes-likely-to-fall/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/loan-interest-on-first-homes-likely-to-fall/<p class="p1">The average interest rate for first home loans continued to decline steadily in January, following a 0.53% month-on-month decrease in December, <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2019-02-21/doc-ihqfskcp7089641.shtml"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The average lending rate for first home buyers in January was 5.66% nation-wide, which is 1.155 times the benchmark interest rate, decreasing by 0.35% from December, according to data released by Rong360 Big Data Institute.</p>
<p class="p1">For first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the rate of first home loans were in the range of 5.09% to 5.57%.</p>
<p class="p1">However, second-tier cities saw a large correction. For example, in Tianjin, many banks cut mortgage interest rates, and lowered first home loan rates to 5% above the benchmark interest rate, compared to the previous 15% above the benchmark.</p>
<p class="p1">It is expected that more cities will see a downward adjustment of their first home lending rate, and the decrease will vary from city to city, said Li Weiyi, analyst at Rong360.</p>
Premier Li Keqiang says nation determined not to flood the economy with excessive liquidity and credit
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-will-not-loosen-monetary-policy-official/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-will-not-loosen-monetary-policy-official/<p class="p1">China will not change its current prudential monetary policy and is determined not to flood the economy with excessive liquidity and credit, Premier Li Keqiang reiterated in the State Council executive meeting on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.yicai.com/news/100121112.html"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">After the central bank released its January financial data last week, among which new loan and money aggregate both hit historical highs, some people expressed concern that monetary policy might return to the old path of using excessive liquidity and credit to stimulate economic growth.</p>
<p class="p1">Premier Li denied the latter and responded that having two Reserve Requirement Ratio cuts in January was what the market expected and also because China&#8217;s RRR is higher than any major economy in the world.</p>
<p class="p1">After the RRR cuts, the overall scale of social financing has increased largely, according to Li, adding, it is the rapid growth of bill financing and short-term loans which has propped up the total number.</p>
<p class="p1">This could also lead to a potential crisis such as arbitrage, Li warned.</p>
An eerie calm on Wall Street yesterday and today is a strong sign that the Fed has done all it can to revive the stock market
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-feds-positive-feedback-loop/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-feds-positive-feedback-loop/<p>The Fed responds to the market, and the market responds to the Fed, until both are so attuned to each other that neither does anything. Today’s much-anticipated release of minutes from the January Federal Open Market Committee meeting revealed that the Federal Reserve would do… nothing.</p>
<p>On Tuesday and Wednesday morning prior to the release of the minutes, the US stock market did… nothing. And after the release of the minutes, the US stock market did… nothing.</p>
<p>To be specific, the Federal Reserve plans to do nothing to the overnight rate and nothing to its balance sheet. As an emergency measure following the Great Financial Crisis, the Fed bought $4 trillion of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities, by way of quantitative easing. Early in 2018 the Fed began to reduce its securities holdings by the smallest of increments, and market panic set in.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314176" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Fed-holdings.png" alt="" width="846" height="630" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Fed-holdings.png 846w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Fed-holdings-768x572.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px" /></p>
<p>In December, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell declared that he would continue to reduce the Fed balance sheet, and a very great panic set in. Thereupon, the Federal turned its tail and fled, like Brave Sir Robin in Monty Python’s “Holy Grail” story.</p>
<p>As the minutes report, “Almost all participants thought that it would be desirable to announce before too long a plan to stop reducing the Federal Reserve’s asset holdings later this year.” And the Fed said it would be “patient” about raising the federal funds rate, which means that it won’t do anything at all. The interest-rate market presently anticipates no rate increases in 2019 and a small rate cut in 2020.</p>
<p>The Fed’s Phillips Curve model states that low unemployment means higher wages and thus higher inflation, which in turn requires tighter money. But forward-looking views of inflation expectations suggest that the big risk is not inflation but rather deflation.</p>
<p>Employment has grown, to be sure, but the quality of employment has downshifted to less secure and less remunerated sectors, as I observed in yesterday’s column. Important sectors of the asset market, for example real estate, show price sogginess because prospective buyers and renters can’t afford the higher prices. The willingness of consumers to spend is questionable, and the ability of all but the best-rated borrowers to obtain credit is limited.</p>
<p>Something scary happened last year as oil prices fell. Once the oil price settled into a trading range in the mid-$50s for West Texas Intermediate, expected inflation as embodied in Treasury yields fell sharply, from 1.9% during the next five years to 1.7% during the next five years. (So-called breakeven inflation is the difference between the yield of inflation-indexed US Treasuries and ordinary Treasuries, i.e., the inflation rate at which both will return the same amount).</p>
<p>When a little nudge from the oil prices causes inflation expectations to fall off a cliff, that can’t be good. The Fed thinks that inflation should run at about 2% &#8211; a strange idea, considering that the price level will quintuple over the average lifetime of an American at that inflation rate.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314177" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Inflation-deflation-twilight-zone.png" alt="" width="642" height="622" /></p>
<p>Just as scary is the fact that US equity markets tracked inflation expectations tick for tick since last September. Deflation is bad for stocks; it lowers the pricing power of corporations and reduces profits (inflation is also bad if it runs out of control). As the S&amp;P 500 fell at the end of 2018, expected inflation fell in tandem. Inflation expectations have revived a bit as the stock market bounced back in January, but remain on a lower track.</p>
<p>These numbers tell the Federal Reserve that large parts of the US economy are ready to retrench the moment that liquidity becomes less abundant. It wasn’t only the stock market that crashed in December. The market for below-investment-grade credit shut down entirely. Total issuance of high-yield bonds fell to less than $1 billion, something that hasn&#8217;t happened since the data series began in 1996. Not only did investors pull back, but consumers evidently pulled back as well, as retail sales had their biggest monthly decline in December 2018 since the great crash in 2009.</p>
<p>The dead calm in the US equities market yesterday and today suggests strongly that the Fed has done all it can to revive the equity market. Color me skeptical about the Wall Street consensus view that profits will pick up late in 2019 after a first-quarter trough. I continue to like good-quality income assets more than equities.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314178" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Downshift-in-inflation-expectations.png" alt="" width="660" height="588" /></p>
<p>Any attempt on the part of the Federal Reserve to siphon air out of the bubble threatens to pop the bubble.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314179" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Oil-equities-v-financial-conditions.png" alt="" width="773" height="688" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Oil-equities-v-financial-conditions.png 773w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Oil-equities-v-financial-conditions-768x684.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px" /></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314180" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/PC-analysis.png" alt="" width="522" height="639" /></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-314181" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/JPY-v-US-10-yr-and-gold.png" alt="" width="738" height="541" /></p>
Signs point to weaker revenue growth, but corporate credit, REITs, and other income-earning assets will likely hold up well
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/low-growth-low-risk-and-low-returns/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/low-growth-low-risk-and-low-returns/<p>Equity markets barely fluttered on Tuesday after the President’s Day holiday, as investors tried to work out how weak the US economy was, how weak corporate profits might be, and whether a dovish Fed would counterbalance a sluggish economy.</p>
<p>Last week’s reported plunge in US retail sales surprised analysts, so much so that a large part of the commentary doesn’t believe the number at all. The measure to watch in my view is year-on-year change, which has been declining for several months. If the Commerce Department’s number was right, real retail sales are flat. Optimists pointed to Wal-Mart’s 4% year-on-year gain in same-store sales, which prompted a gain of more than 3% in the retailer’s stock.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-313648" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Retail-sales-yoy.png" alt="" width="866" height="621" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Retail-sales-yoy.png 866w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Retail-sales-yoy-768x551.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" /></p>
<p>One feature of the economic landscape is radically different from anything we have seen in the past: Employment is growing in the overall economy but falling among exchange-listed companies. During the past year, the US economy added more than 2 million jobs, but listed companies shed about a million jobs. That means small business added 3 million jobs.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-313649" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Total-vs-Russell-3000.png" alt="" width="861" height="641" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Total-vs-Russell-3000.png 861w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Total-vs-Russell-3000-768x572.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" /></p>
<p>Most of the new jobs went to the employment categories dominated by small business: leisure/entertainment, health and educational services, and business services (some of which is outsourcing of work from large corporations). There was also a notable gain in construction and manufacturing employment.</p>
<p>For better or worse, this is Donald Trump’s economy. The surge in small business activity reflects the impact of tax cuts, deregulation and $1 trillion a year in deficit spending. CapEx by large corporations remains at miserable levels, in part because of uncertainty about global supply chains, and that element of economic weakness can be laid at the president’s door next to the boom in small business activity.</p>
<p>The trouble is that most of the employment added by small businesses involves lower pay, fewer benefits and less stability than employment at large firms. That might explain the discrepancy between continued high employment growth, disappointing retail sales, and expectations about future employment. The Conference Board’s survey of consumer confidence shows that Americans are worried about future job prospects even while the economy continues to add jobs at a good clip.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-313650" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Conference-board-employment-indices.png" alt="" width="867" height="630" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Conference-board-employment-indices.png 867w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Conference-board-employment-indices-768x558.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" /></p>
<p>The end of 2018 saw a plunge in the percentage of respondents who expect to have more income or a greater likelihood of finding a job six months hence.</p>
<p>That leaves us with low but steady economic growth, and few likely surprises. The central banks of the world have responded to weaker growth by leaning towards monetary ease. The policy response explains the coincidence of economic weakness and low equity market volatility.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-313651" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Assorted-volatilities.png" alt="" width="705" height="630" /></p>
<p>A low-growth, low-risk environment favors carry (income-earning assets vs growth). I’m not particularly enthusiastic about the prospects for equity markets under these circumstances: It is unlikely that large corporations can generate enough productivity to offset a lower headcount, which means that revenue growth should be weak. But corporate credit, REITs, and other income vehicles should hold up well.</p>
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be delivered as soon as next week, report says
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-russia-probe-may-finally-be-over/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-russia-probe-may-finally-be-over/<p>US President Donald Trump has served the majority of his term under the cloud of the so-called Russia probe, an investigation which sought, in part, to determine whether his 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russian agents to win the election.</p>
<p>That all may be coming to an end as soon as next week, when a report on the investigation is delivered to the Department of Justice. CNN reported Wednesday that newly appointed Attorney General William Barr could announce the completion of the probe next week.</p>
<p>The investigation began in its current form in May of 2017, when special counsel Robert Mueller, a career prosecutor and former FBI chief, was appointed to look into possible Russian election interference. Mueller has no power to indict the president, but there has been widespread speculation that his report could implicate the president in wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Critics of the investigation argue that no evidence has been presented publicly to link the president to a conspiracy to collude with Russian agents and have long-called for an end to the probe.</p>
<p>During a press conference on Wednesday, when asked whether he thought the report should be made public, Trump said it was up to Attorney General Barr.</p>
<p>“That’ll be totally up to the new attorney general who is a tremendous man,” Trump said.</p>
<p>Exactly how much of the report the attorney general releases to the public is unclear.</p>
<p>The regulations that grant Mueller his authority require him to submit a confidential report to the attorney general, which does not necessarily have to be provided to Congress or the public. Barr has said that Justice Department rules prohibit the disclosure of derogatory information about individuals who have not been charged with a crime.</p>
<p>While the inquiry has yet to prosecute any US citizen for a crime of conspiracy to collude in election fraud, it has led to guilty pleas from seven Trump associates. All of the pleas are to process crimes, such as providing false statements to investigators or Congress, or to financial crimes.</p>
https://youtu.be/EOaLYu_-Hu8, 79
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-top-5-countries-for-doing-business-in-asia/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-top-5-countries-for-doing-business-in-asia/Indigenous villagers fired shots at the 11 Vietnamese and then alerted authorities. Six Taiwanese buyers were also arrested
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/runaway-migrants-held-for-illegal-logging/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/runaway-migrants-held-for-illegal-logging/<p>Authorities have arrested 11 Vietnamese runaway migrants and six Taiwanese for illegally logging timber worth more than NT$2 million (US$65,000) in the remote rural district of Vogai in Nantou County, after they were tipped off by an indigenous villager.</p>
<p>The Taiwanese were identified as buyers of the timber, which was allegedly felled, harvested, transported and put on sale by a syndicate organised by a Vietnamese man with the surname of Tran. His compatriots were split into two mobile timber felling teams.</p>
<p>Police, immigration and forestry officials were called to the district on January 27 after villagers complained of illegal felling. The Vietnamese were seen carrying 11 Taiwan cypress logs, as the indigenous villagers fired warning shots at them. Three days later, the same group were spotted carrying seven Taiwan cypress logs.</p>
<p>The authorities closed in on February 16 when they broke up a meeting between Tran and six Taiwanese buyers led by a man called Wang at a motel room in Nantou. Police and forestry officers recovered 19 Taiwan cypress logs, six pieces of burl wood and NT$300,000 (US$9,740) in cash.</p>
<p>The other Vietnamese were arrested at an apartment on nearby Zhongxing Road, Cotun Town. All were charged with illegal logging.</p>
Chinese tech giant is losing market share to its rivals and needs new dApp blockchain platform to work
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/struggling-baidu-looks-to-blockchain/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/struggling-baidu-looks-to-blockchain/<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Chinese tech giant Baidu has launched a blockchain operating system to support the creation and development of decentralized applications – or d</span><span class="s1">Apps – according to an<a href="http://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1625401104299366436"><span class="s2"> announcement</span></a> from its cloud computing unit.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Baidu Blockchain Engine (BBE) will, says the company, be run on its integrated &#8220;ABC&#8221; technology platform. The acronym stands for artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, and has the aim of making third-party dApp development faster and simpler. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Blockchain networks, to fully function, need user traffic in the same way that a car needs fuel. And, like all dApp platforms, Baidu&#8217;s long term goal will be to see an expanding portfolio of independently-created applications running on its blockchain system that, in turn, will pull in increasing numbers of users to make their network successful.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">The dApp world has been much-hyped but, <a href="https://medium.com/dappreview/dapps-data-insights-volume-down-60-did-dapps-die-48acdf910df6">according</a> to Vincent Niu, founder of the Chinese-language blog site dApp Review, global dApp user numbers, instead of growing are falling and this, he says, is because the sector lacks high level content. Nai says &#8220;mind blowing&#8221; product innovation is needed to move the sector beyond what he calls its current &#8220;vacuum stage&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Niu has a point. The most well-known dApp to date is probably the CryptoKittie, that, as its name suggests, provided a platform to facilitate the commercial trade of digital cats, and famously <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42237162"><span class="s2">slowed down</span></a> the Ethereum network in 2017. Yet, despite all the negative press, the kitties creator, Dapper Labs, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-01/cryptokitties-maker-doubles-valuation-in-venrock-led-fundraising"><span class="s2">recently finished a $15 million fundraising round</span></a>.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Baidu Inc, currently<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-19/why-baidu-is-the-most-vulnerable-tech-giant-to-a-china-downturn"> losing market share to its rivals</a>, first announced plans for a blockchain network <a href="https://twitter.com/Baidu_Inc/status/1044931220767817728?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw%257Ctwcamp%255Etweetembed%257Ctwterm%255E1044931220767817728&amp;ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.cryptoglobe.com%252Flatest%252F2019%252F02%252Fbaidu-launches-blockchain-os-make-dapp-development-simple%252F"><span class="s2">last September</span></a> when it launched its XuperChain network. Founded in 2000, Baidu was for many years known as China’s leading search engine but now faces growing market challenges as its content is increasingly &#8220;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/71be11f8-3136-11e9-8744-e7016697f225"><span class="s2">walled off&#8221; by rival networks owned by Tencent and Alibaba</span></a>. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Aside from XuperChain, Baidu&#8217;s first foray into dApps was the launch of its &#8220;Leci Gou”or &#8220;CryptoDogs&#8221; platform last year that, just like the feline original, allowed users to purchase, trade, and breed digital dogs. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">I</span><span class="s1">mitation may still be the highest form of flattery in China but it seems the Baidu Blockchain Engine will need something akin to actual originality if it is to help its parent company thrive.</span></p>
Expansionary spending plan includes billions of dollars worth of voter-friendly hand-outs and subsidies, including special earmarks for the elderly
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pork-barrel-politics-hint-at-early-polls-in-singapore/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pork-barrel-politics-hint-at-early-polls-in-singapore/<p>Singapore&#8217;s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat delivered a closely watched budget statement earlier this week, unveiling an expansionary spending plan for 2019. Widely viewed as one of the key events of the city-state’s political calendar, the latest budget points towards the probability of a snap election later this year.</p>
<p>Speculation has been rife since Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hinted last year that early elections could be called in 2019, more than a year before his government’s mandate ends. As external uncertainties weigh against the island-nation’s trade-reliant growth, some analysts see early polls as a hedge against holding them later in a potentially dimmer, less-predictable economic environment.</p>
<p>Data released ahead of the latest budget proposal showed that Singapore’s economy grew at its slowest pace in more than two years in the fourth quarter of 2018. As such, all eyes were on Heng for signals on how the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) plans to stave off economic headwinds in the financial year ahead.</p>
<p>The budget statement was the first major policy speech given by Heng since he was designated to succeed Lee as Singapore’s next prime minister, following a protracted selection process that saw the city-state abuzz with political guesswork. Some wondered whether the finance minister might now showcase a more campaign-oriented persona.</p>
<p>Instead, he delved into policy details – terrain where analysts see him as being more comfortable – while offering up justifications for certain spending decisions and reiterating themes familiar to his three previous budget addresses: fiscal and environmental sustainability, economic transformation and mitigating widening social inequality.</p>
<p>The prime minister-in-waiting unveiled S$10.5 billion (US$7.7 billion) worth of subsidies and cash handouts in what some analysts see as a possible signal that a snap election is on the near-term horizon. The PAP government similarly dipped into its coffers to fund generous cash bonuses and subsidy schemes ahead of the last two general elections in 2011 and 2015.</p>
<figure id="attachment_285370" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-285370" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Singapore-Heng-Swee-Keat-4G-leader-Peoples-Action-Party-April-5-2018-e1550650797488.jpg" alt="Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat delivers a keynote address at the 8th World Bank-Singapore infrastructure Finance Summit in Singapore on April 5, 2018. Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman " width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Singapore-Heng-Swee-Keat-4G-leader-Peoples-Action-Party-April-5-2018-e1550650797488.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Singapore-Heng-Swee-Keat-4G-leader-Peoples-Action-Party-April-5-2018-e1550650797488-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Singapore-Heng-Swee-Keat-4G-leader-Peoples-Action-Party-April-5-2018-e1550650797488-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in an April 5, 2018 file photo. Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman</figcaption></figure>
<p>Valued at S$6.1 billion ($4.5 billion), the Merdeka Generation Package is the centerpiece of this year’s budget, offering various healthcare subsidies to the generation born in the 1950s who experienced the tail-end of British colonial rule and the dawn of Merdeka, or “independence” in Malay, the eldest of whom are now 69-years-old.</p>
<p>Heng said the package would benefit nearly half-a-million Singaporeans in all and cost more than S$8 billion ($5.9 billion) over their lifetimes, describing the initiative as “a gesture of our nation’s gratitude” for their contributions. Singapore faces a key demographic challenge in the years ahead as it anticipates the rising costs of caring for an aging population.</p>
<p>By 2050, almost half of Singapore’s total population will be aged 65 or older. Many policy watchers wonder to what extent the PAP – which has traditionally been averse to social spending and notions of “welfarism” – will go to offset the higher healthcare and social costs its greying population will incur in the decades ahead.</p>
<p>During a segment of his speech lauding elderly participation in the workforce, Heng eschewed welfare schemes in place in other countries, which he said “weaken people’s sense of agency and independence” and vowed to meet “recurrent spending in areas such as healthcare” with recurrent revenues rather than borrowing.</p>
<p>Apart from tax collection, government revenue relies on the net investment returns contribution (NIRC) scheme, which refers to interest earned on the wealthy city-state’s outsized financial reserves. The total value of those reserves, estimated at over S$500 billion ($370 billion), is a state secret withheld to prevent market speculation.</p>
<p>Another big-ticket item on offer is the S$1.1 billion ($813.6 million) Bicentennial Bonus package, in which an estimated 1.4 million Singaporeans will be eligible to claim various top-ups to their state-sanctioned health and educational accounts, in addition to a tax rebate capped at S$300 ($221) in cash and a separate cash bonus for eligible lower-income workers.</p>
<figure id="attachment_186518" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-186518" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Singapore-Stamford-Raffles-Raffles-Hotel-Bust-October-13-2007-Wikimedia-Commons-e1550650883454.jpg" alt="A bust at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore of Sir Stamford Raffles, by certain historical reckonings the city-state's founder. Photo: Wikimedia Commons" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Singapore-Stamford-Raffles-Raffles-Hotel-Bust-October-13-2007-Wikimedia-Commons-e1550650883454.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Singapore-Stamford-Raffles-Raffles-Hotel-Bust-October-13-2007-Wikimedia-Commons-e1550650883454-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Singapore-Stamford-Raffles-Raffles-Hotel-Bust-October-13-2007-Wikimedia-Commons-e1550650883454-1568x1176.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A bust at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore of Sir Stamford Raffles. Photo: Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>
<p>The city-state is commemorating its “bicentennial” this year, marking the 200th anniversary of the 1819 landing of British colonialist Sir Stamford Raffles, who established a British settlement and trading port on the island. Raffles has long been celebrated as the “founder” of modern Singapore and his colonial-era statue still stands in the island’s civic district.</p>
<p>Some analysts see parallels with celebrations in 2015, when Singapore commemorated its Golden Jubilee marking 50 years since independence was achieved in 1965. The PAP resoundingly won re-election that year, helped by a buoyant public mood and national mourning for the passing of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister and national founder, who passed away at 91.</p>
<p>Tan Ern Ser, a sociologist at the National University of Singapore, told Asia Times that snap polls could be called later this year in the midst of the colonial bicentennial’s celebratory wake. “Clues are to be found outside as well as inside the budget. There is no mention of tax hikes, which could sour the basket of provisions,” he said.</p>
<p>“The budget is somewhat ambivalent as to whether a general election is on the horizon,” said Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University (SMU). He told Asia Times that the government aims to shore up a &#8220;feel-good&#8221; factor after going through a relatively tough patch made worse by a variety of lapses.</p>
<p>“Budget 2019 will be penultimate, if not the last, budget before the next election. With accumulated surpluses by the current government topping more than S$20 billion, there is powder left in the keg to have an even more generous budget in 2020,” he said. Economists estimate that the government has so far accumulated budget surpluses of about S$19 billion ($14 billion).</p>
<p>Heng said the government will log a deficit of S$3.5 billion ($2.5 billion) with total spending amounting to S$80.3 billion ($59.4 billion), a 1.6% increase over the previous year. About 30% of total expenditure will go towards defense, security and diplomacy, which Mustafa Izzuddin, a fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, sees as a reflection of rising regional security challenges.</p>
<figure id="attachment_195575" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-195575" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Singapore-Elderly-Checkers-January-2018-e1550651038280.jpg" alt="An elderly man reads a newspaper as others play checkers in Singapore, January 16, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Calvin Wong" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Singapore-Elderly-Checkers-January-2018-e1550651038280.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Singapore-Elderly-Checkers-January-2018-e1550651038280-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Singapore-Elderly-Checkers-January-2018-e1550651038280-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An elderly man reads a newspaper as others play checkers in Singapore, January 16, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Calvin Wong</figcaption></figure>
<p>“The bilateral tension in Malaysia-Singapore relations after the 2018 Malaysian election and the unpredictability in Indonesia-Singapore relations given that Indonesia is going to the polls this year factored into the strategic calculations of Singaporean policymakers,” he says, pointing to a rise of nationalist sentiment in Singapore&#8217;s immediate neighborhood.</p>
<p>“This budget is a mirror image of the one delivered just prior to the last general election [with] significant boosts to social spending,” says Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Center at Australia&#8217;s Murdoch University, which he senses has “a strong election ring to it.”</p>
<p>“However, there is also scope for opposition parties to highlight the PAP’s reticence to address social inequalities through a needs-based strategy of social redistribution, “ he said. “This budget statement offers no fundamental policy shift towards a more egalitarian society,” he added while acknowledging that the plan is still likely to enjoy wide electoral support.</p>
<p>“Many of the payments have an expiry timeline and are demographic-specific, rather than marking a turning point in social equity,” Rodan said.</p>
<p>A statement issued by the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in response to the budget drew similar conclusions, pointing to a tax-hike due after the next general election.</p>
<p>“Nothing in the current budget addresses the high cost of living in the world&#8217;s most expensive city, the seriously unaffordable public housing, and an outmoded education system that does not prepare our children for the future,” it said, adding that the PAP is “engaging in short-term pork-barreling to entice votes.”</p>
Hong Kong shopkeeper washes a jacket containing more than $11,400 at coin-operated laundry
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/money-laundering-mistake-leads-to-theft/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/money-laundering-mistake-leads-to-theft/<p>Police arrested a woman for allegedly stealing money which had been accidentally left by its owner in a jacket she washed at a coin-operated laundry in Hung Hom, Kowloon on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The alleged theft happened on February 7 when a 50-year-old woman surnamed Mok, said to be a flower shop owner, washed her clothes at a coin laundry on Bulkeley Street in Hung Hom, Apple Daily reported.</p>
<p>Mok reportedly forgot that a pocket of a jacket included in her laundry held HK$90,000 (US$11,466) in cash, and while the laundry was being washed, she returned to her nearby flower shop.</p>
<p>A few hours later, when she returned to the laundry she found someone had taken her clothes out of the machine and she was shocked to find around HK$20,000 in banknotes left inside the machine.</p>
<p>Police examined the laundry&#8217;s surveillance camera footage and determined that a <a href="https://static.appledaily.hk/images/apple-photos/apple/20190220/large/a1103a.gif" target="_blank" rel="noopener">woman had taken banknotes from the machine</a>.</p>
<p>At 9am on Tuesday, police officers arrested a 34-year-old Nepali woman for alleged theft as she left her subdivided flat on Baker Street, Headline Daily reported.</p>
<p>It is understood that HK$30,000 had been deposited in the suspect&#8217;s bank account.</p>
<p>The woman was taken in for questioning. Officers are investigating the HK$40,000 that is allegedly missing.</p>
Busy trunk routes in eastern and southern provinces linking cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo and Guangzhou may get the first new trains
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/twin-deck-bullet-trains-to-ease-congestion/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/twin-deck-bullet-trains-to-ease-congestion/<p>China may have come up with a solution to capacity problems on its high-speed bullet trains: simply add another floor. The double-deck fleet will be rolled out to haul more passengers in comfort and style during peak travel seasons like the chunyun, or the Chinese New Year rush.</p>
<p>Engineers told Xinhua that these new, chubby-looking trains would also feature more spacious coaches and could still speed at up to 350 kilometers per hour despite the bigger passenger loads.</p>
<p>Zhang Weihua, a professor with the Chengdu-based Southwest Jiaotong University, told the state-run Science and Technology Daily that there were no major technical hurdles in adding another floor, though design changes would be needed in power distribution and wheels.</p>
<p>The newspaper said one challenge would be how to offset centrifugal forces when the heavier carriages made sharp turns on tracks without passengers on the upper floor experiencing motion sickness. However, Zhang said this could be overcome by lowering the center of gravity of each carriage.</p>
<figure id="attachment_314046" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-314046" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1024px-Refurbished_ktt_interior.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1024px-Refurbished_ktt_interior.jpg 1024w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1024px-Refurbished_ktt_interior-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The interior of a double-deck passenger carriage operated by the MTR in Hong Kong. Photo: WikiMedia</figcaption></figure>
<p>Busy trunk routes running through eastern and southern China, including lines linking Beijing and Shanghai, Shanghai and Ningbo, Shanghai and Nanjing and Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which are also among the most profitable on the network, may be among the first to trial the double-deckers.</p>
<p>It isn’t the first time China has used double-deck trains: one consisting of two locomotives and four bilevel carriages was built back in 1958.</p>
<p>The most obvious benefit is to reduce congestion, but it will also lower operating costs per passenger without requiring costly new infrastructure such as extended platforms for longer trains, extra tracks or upgrades in signaling and safety equipment so more frequent services can be run.</p>
<p>Euroduplex, made by the French rolling stock and rail equipment manufacturer Alstom, is currently the only double-deck carriage in commercial service that can hit the 300 km/h mark. Thanks to its two-floor configuration, an eight-car Euroduplex can carry more than 1,200 passengers through France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Luxembourg, 40% more than the capacity of a single-decker of equivalent length and gauge.</p>
<p>Hong Kong’s MTR operates standard double-deck, cross-boundary intercity trains between cities in Guangdong province, using rolling stock manufactured by Kinki Sharyo in Japan.</p>
The move will not only cut revenue shares but will also scuttle provinces’ powers to tax services
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/despite-saudi-funds-pakistan-squeezes-provinces/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/despite-saudi-funds-pakistan-squeezes-provinces/<p>Pakistan’s frenzy over the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/mbs-provides-strong-timely-support-for-pakistan/?_=5562998">Saudi investment</a> of over $20 billion will not scuttle the government&#8217;s plan to squeeze provincial budgets. This is deemed necessary to enable Islamabad to foot its bulging security bill and allocate funds for the Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) reform program. The move will also diminish the power of the provinces to tax services, agricultural income, and returns on landed properties.</p>
<p>Initiated last year, the FATA reform process to merge the tribal areas with the North West province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) stalled due to the government <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/1787940/2-budget-deficit-widens-record-rs2-26tr-fy18/">fiscal deficit</a>, which reached a record of 2.26 trillion rupees (US$15.3 billion) for the year ending June 2018.</p>
<p>The first-ever meeting of the National Finance Commission (NFC) held under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government in early February this year failed to convince the provinces on the &#8220;reallocation of fiscal resources&#8221; to make a cushion for the revenue shortfall of 173 billion rupees ($1.25 billion) in the first half of the current financial year. The provinces also opposed surrendering taxation power back to the federal government and vowed to resist any move that could violate Article 160(3A) of the 1973 Constitution. The article guarantees that the share of the provinces in each award of the National Finance Commission shall not be less than the share given under the previous award. Pakistan’s provinces have refused to provide funds for security and for the FATA mainstreaming process and demand that the central government apportion funds for such needs from its own resources instead of cutting provinces&#8217; funds.</p>
<p>Zahid Khan, spokesperson of Awami National Party (ANP), a KP based right-wing nationalist party, told Asia Times, “This government is imposed on the masses by the establishment for the only purpose to roll back the <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/428723-provinces-to-get-resources-under-18th-amendment">18th Constitutional Amendment</a> which guarantees certain financial and constitutional rights to the federating units.” Khan went on to add that during caretakers set up and earlier in a meeting of the corps commanders, the Pakistan army chief categorically stated that through the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the provinces got the lion share of the resources leaving virtually nothing for defense-related requirements.</p>
<p>Last month the federal finance minister set up a high-powered <a href="http://www.fbr.gov.pk/officehomepage.aspx?view=office+home+page&amp;actionid=1&amp;articleid=895">Tax Commission</a> to &#8220;review and rationalize&#8221; direct and indirect taxes, customs tariffs, and the autonomy and administrative structure of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The commission will also recommend a border force to deal with the illegal movement of persons and goods across international borders.</p>
<p>Economic analysts claim that this commission will facilitate the transfer of taxation powers from the provinces to the federation. The central government will now collect GST on services, agricultural tax, and property tax, previously the domain of the provinces under the 18th Constitutional amendment. They claim that the government has also decided to put in place a <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/427679-gst-collection-tax-on-agri-income">Medium Term Tax Policy Framework</a> that will review the existing tax structure and recommend structural changes in the tax policy for the next three-year period.</p>
<p>“It was earlier decided by the federal government that three percent of the pooled revenue would be diverted for FATA development from the federal account and not from the share of the provinces,” Zahid said. He added that it was the responsibility of the central government to provide for the development and security of the citizen. The provinces, he said, has nothing to do with the revenue shortfall or FATA allocation. “No one admits where Pakistan’s foreign loans have gone? The astronomical loans worth $97 billion did not go for social sector development but a big chunk of these loans have in fact (been) expended on acquiring defense capability in nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles, tanks, and ammunition,” Khan added.</p>
<p>The projection for Pakistan’s economy during the current fiscal year is not encouraging. The <a href="https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/405881-fitch-downgrades-pakistan-s-rating-to-b-on-heightened-external-financing-risk">Fitch Rating</a> downgraded Pakistan’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to ‘B-’ from ‘B’ due to external financing risk, higher foreign debt repayments, and a deteriorating fiscal position. The <a href="https://nation.com.pk/07-Jan-2019/pakistan-s-budget-deficit-projected-to-clock-in-at-6-for-fy18-19-fitch-solutions">Fitch Solution</a>, a subsidy of Fitch Rating, projected the country&#8217;s fiscal deficit at 6 % of the GDP for the current financial year. In a report released last month, the research agency warned that the widening current accounting deficit, weakening currency and sliding foreign exchange reserves were unsustainable and showed the current fiscal trend of expenditures outmatching revenue growth.</p>
<p>Out of the total financial commitment of $8 billion from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China, Pakistan has so far received $4 billion from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Although China has pledged $2 billion, funds have not yet been transferred to the country’s State Bank. The financial account inflows from bilateral donors failed to cover the widening gap of trade deficit. The foreign reserves fell to its lowest level since November 2014, at just $9 billion, enough for less than two months of import cover. This situation prompted the government to approach the International Monetary Fund with a high-level delegation headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this month in Dubai.</p>
<p>Dr. Farrukh Saleem, a former government advisor on the economy and an Islamabad-based political scientist, economist, financial analyst and journalist told Asia Times, “In October last year I suggested during my interview with the New York Times that the government should approach the IMF because a successful conclusion of ongoing negotiations with (the) IMF could help stabilize the external finances.“ He said that Pakistan needs $1.8 billion per month to meet its external account commitment. “The inflow from the bilateral donors has already been (and) gone,” Saleem said, adding that distribution of resources through the NFC Award needed to be realigned keeping in view of the fact that 1.1 trillion rupees ($7.9 billion) go to defense and 2 trillion rupees ($14.3 billion) for debt-servicing. “It makes the federal government hard pressed to allocate funds among the provinces in terms of the NFC Award,” he added.</p>
The Philippines has responded to higher demand for domestic workers during Ramadan by easing export conditions
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rules-change-will-boost-saudi-recruitments/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rules-change-will-boost-saudi-recruitments/<p class="p1">The Philippines has eased conditions for the recruitment of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia as demand surges ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, despite continuing strains over the execution of a Filipina maid in late January for murder.</p>
<p>Saudi recruitment offices will now be able to deal with four manpower exporting agencies instead of two, in a move that is also expected to reduce the costs of bringing workers into the country, <a href="http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/559448/SAUDI-ARABIA/Manila-eases-conditions-for-maid-recruitment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saudi Gazette</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Hakeem Al-Khinaizi, owner of a recruitment office in Dammam, said Saudi recruiters can start setting up offices in the Philippines and open contract talks. He said it will cost about 17,000 Saudi riyals (US$4,629) to import a domestic worker from the Philippines, plus 2,000 riyals ($533) for the visa fee and 850 riyals ($226) in taxes.</p>
<p>Al-Khinaizi said the changes will help overcome recruitment delays that occur when a maid refuses to board her flight to Saudi Arabia at the last minute or is found to be carrying an infectious disease.</p>
<p class="p1">“In such cases, the recruitment offices in the Philippines will have to start the procedures from the beginning, which will require more time,” he said.</p>
<p>About a quarter of the estimated 2.3 million Filipinos working overseas are based in Saudi Arabia, which most employed as domestic workers. A maid earns a fixed monthly salary of 1,500 riyals (US$400).</p>
<p>Despite the importance of the Saudi employment market to the Philippines, relations have been strained by accusations of maids being mistreated by employers and the execution of a 39-year-old Filipina in January for murder after her family was unable to pay so-called blood money under traditional Sharia law.</p>
New model can fly long-range missions, carry many missiles and would be a big asset for Japan, Taiwan
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-air-force-orders-first-f-15x-fighter-bombers/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-air-force-orders-first-f-15x-fighter-bombers/<p>The US Air Force is ordering the first eight of 80 new F-15X aircraft from Boeing, which manufactures them in St Louis alongside production of the F-18 Super Hornet.</p>
<p>According to reliable reports, the new F-15&#8217;s will have even greater carrying capacity than older F-15 models and will have upgrades found in the F-15 model being sold to Qatar. Deliveries to Qatar are now underway so the production line is active.</p>
<p>The proposed US Air Force acquisition is strongly opposed by Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-35 &#8220;stealth&#8221; fighter, on the grounds that it would undermine the F-35 program. The Air Force has denied this and claims F-35 purchases won&#8217;t be affected by the new procurement.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the jury is still out on whether Congress will agree to the Air Force request.</p>
<p>Moreover, the &#8220;X&#8221; version, as currently defined, does not make use of the electronics and sensor integration that is a key feature of the F-35. Whether future F-15 platforms would have the costly electronics of the F-35 is uncertain.</p>
<p>The F-35 is optimized for &#8220;stealth&#8221; – that is, a very low radar signature, while the F-15X apparently is not.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Stealth&#8217; detection capabilities</h4>
<p>But Boeing has a &#8220;stealth&#8221; version of the F-15 on its drawing board, called the <a href="http://www.bryensblog.com/trump-right-f-35/">Silent Eagle</a>. Israel was very interested in the Silent Eagle for many reasons, including the ability of the heavy F-15 to carry a large payload of precision weapons and a capability to penetrate enemy air defenses.</p>
<p>The US is still on the stealth bandwagon, even though the F-35 is not stealth capable from all directions. But the more important development is the emergence of new stealth-aircraft detection capabilities which are being pursued heavily <a href="https://www.ausairpower.net/SP/DT-Rus-VHF-Radar-2008.pdf">by the Russians</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43877682">and others</a>. These include much more capable electro-optical systems able to pinpoint threats at greater distances, which rely on visual and non-visual signatures, such as heat profiles in the infra-red bandwidths, and more exotic detection systems including <a href="https://www.popsci.com/china-quantum-radar-detects-stealth-planes-missiles">quantum radars</a> and <a href="https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/08/usa-russia-and-china-likely-to-have-photonic-radar-for-long-range-detection-of-stealth-planes.html">photonic detection </a>systems.</p>
<p>Electro-optical systems and their detectors are being steadily improved and can be integrated into air defense systems. A key advantage is that these sensors are passive: they do not emit any radio energy, meaning they can&#8217;t be knocked out with anti-radiation weapons nor can they easily be jammed.</p>
<p>Reportedly, Russia&#8217;s S-400 Air Defense System <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-it-might-be-impossible-russias-s-300-or-s-400-kill-f-35-or-b-2-bomber-37262">can detect stealth aircraft</a> including the F-22, which may help explain why it is being sold successfully to Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, countries that normally don&#8217;t buy Russian hardware.</p>
<p>Along with electro-optical, lower frequency radars operating in the very high to ultra-high frequencies (VHF, UHF) along with L Band radars are being integrated into new Russian fighter aircraft and ground air defenses. The problem with these systems in the past was that while they can detect a threat at some distance, they could not accurately locate the threat. But there is evidence that this weakness is being overcome.</p>
<p>Most ideas about air combat today are focused on long-range intercept using beyond visual range (BVR) missiles. BVR missiles do not need to be mounted only on stealth aircraft, but stealth allows more protection from enemy counterattacks at long range.</p>
<h4>Hypersonic weapons</h4>
<p>BVR missiles come potentially in three designs: standard missiles, stealthy missiles and hypersonic missiles. Of the three, <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a25684396/zircon-hypersonic-missile/">Russian</a>, <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/can-americas-military-match-chinas-hypersonic-weapons-33656"> Chinese</a> and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-us-is-quietly-winning-the-hypersonic-arms-race">US defense establishments </a>are increasingly focused on hypersonic weapons, mostly for ground attack. But if hypersonic missile sizes can be reduced, they can perform both the air-to-ground and air-to-air role, creating a major problem for a defender.</p>
<p>One of the reasons the Air Force wants the F-15X is it can carry, in its beefed-up design, hypersonic missiles. These are currently believed to be too large to fit into the F-35, which must carry its weapons – including its air-defense missiles – internally, to maintain its penetration capability.</p>
<p>Another key advantage of the F-15X is that it can fly long-range missions while the F-35 is much more a tactical aircraft optimized for relatively short range missions. Problems such as removing threats in places such as Iran or North Korea would typically need long-range aircraft. While the existing F-22 can do this mission, it has constant <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-air-forces-mighty-f-22-raptor-fleet-serious-trouble-33571">readiness problems</a> because the platform is aging and has problems in repairing stealth coatings on the aircraft&#8217;s surface. These coatings are eroding and require skill and time for repair.</p>
<p>In 2017 the <a href="http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/feature/5/197381/us-fighter-readiness%3A-the-view-from-beijing.html">average readiness level </a>of the F-22 was a poor 49%, compared to an overall fleet average of 71%. There are around 195 F-22&#8217;s currently operational, but some 17 were damaged at Tyndall AF base in October 2018 by Hurricane Michael. It is reported <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-one-hurricane-knocked-17-mighty-f-22-raptors-out-action-34037">it will take years</a> for these aircraft to be repaired, if they can be. Given operational readiness levels that may continue to decline, as priority is given to F-35&#8217;s, which have their own maintenance issues, that leaves 89 F-22 aircraft or less that can be used in combat.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313903" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313903" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F15-Israel.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1028" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F15-Israel.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F15-Israel-768x493.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/F15-Israel-1568x1007.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An F-15 I fighter jet launches anti-missile flares as it performs during a graduation ceremony of Israeli pilots at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert in December 2018. Photo: AFP / Jack Guez</figcaption></figure>
<h4>The F-15X, missiles</h4>
<p>The F-15X like Qatar&#8217;s F-15 QA will have a greatly enhanced cockpit with touch screen displays and a new, highly capable and updated heads up display (HUD). Among its significant capabilities is it can operate very well at night because of its terrain following radar, meaning it can penetrate enemy air defenses at low altitude, giving an enemy limited time to react. The F-15X can also carry a load of air-to-air missiles including a capacity of 22 AMRAAMs.</p>
<p>The AMRAAM is a medium-range intercept missile that qualifies it as a BVR system, although it has <a href="http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Rus-BVR-AAM.html">less range than Russian</a> and <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2018/02/not-fathers-plaaf-chinas-push-develop-domestic-air-air-missiles/">Chinese BVR</a> weapons and particularly a new Russian design for a ramjet-powered version of the R-77 air-to-air missile.</p>
<p>An important factor in missile design is the ability to maneuver as the missile heads in for a kill, especially to turn tightly as the targeted aircraft tries to avoid being hit. Here the Russians seem to have advantages in the later designs of their air-to-air systems, especially versions of their R-77 mid-range BVR air-to-air missile. Typical missiles as they hone in on a kill fly entirely on kinetic energy, as the missile engine has already burned out, but a ramjet air-to-air missile does not have this problem and, while slower, is more maneuverable.</p>
<p>But the US Air Force is not looking for the F-15X for air-to-air combat, even though it will be quite capable. Rather, the Air Force wants its long range and heavy load, plus the ability to use &#8216;smart&#8217; weapons and, eventually, hypersonic missiles.</p>
<p>In the Middle East, using the F-15X has the advantage that support facilities in friendly countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel are already in place, with logistics and repair facilities available to enable the US to operate with great ease and close to major threats such as Iran.</p>
<h4>Japan, Taiwan better off with the F-15X</h4>
<p>In Asia, Japan is a major F-15 operator, and the US Air Force has its own F-15s operating in Japan. These aircraft form a counterweight to China because they can penetrate deeper and cause much more damage than the new F-35 or even the older F-16. If the goal was to take out medium-range ballistic missile sites in either China or North Korea, the F-15X has the range to destroy them.</p>
<p>Japan seems to have gotten sidetracked in its search for new aircraft. Its greatest interest was in buying the F-22, but Congress prohibited its export abroad and, in any case, the F-22 aircraft is out of production and the jigs and forms needed to build new ones no longer exist. Now Japan is working on what it calls the F-3 fighter, which is a tactical fighter linked-back to the F-16. But that is not what Japan needs for a credible long-range capability. A better substitute for the missing F-22 would be the F-15X.</p>
<p>But it is not only Japan that needs a long-range heavy fighter. In fact, as Taiwan searches for a new high-performance aircraft, it should consider the F-15X, if the US will supply it. It would give the US and Taiwan a major defense asset in the region and perhaps counter China&#8217;s increasingly aggressive operations aimed at the island. Its big load of AMRAAMs would make it a superb air to airforce multiplier. The presence of the F-15X on Taiwan would be a significant counterbalance.</p>
<p>Will either of these countries buy the F-15X? The jury is still out, but the momentum of an Air Force procurement could shift the balance in favor of buying.</p>
Arrested in December, American-born Kenneth Hendricks has been formally charged with molesting children as young as seven. He is alleged to have abused more than 50 children
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/more-kids-claim-they-were-abused-by-priest/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/more-kids-claim-they-were-abused-by-priest/<p>An American priest accused of abusing more than 50 children in the eastern island province of Biliran has been formally charged after more of his alleged victims were emboldened by his arrest to came forward. He is facing deportation to the US on similar charges.</p>
<p><a href="http://philippineslifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-2018-12-06-at-12.14.38-pm.png" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kenneth Hendricks</a>, 77, had been held at the Bureau of Immigration detention cell at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City since his arrest at the Cathedral of Our Lady Rosary in Naval on December 5, but was taken into custody by the police Special Operations Unit on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Resident in the Philippines since 1968, Hendricks was originally detained after a US judge issued a warrant for his arrest for “engaging in illicit sex with a minor in a foreign country”. Five new warrants issued by the Biliran Regional Trial Cour, alleging acts of lasciviousness, were served by Metro Manila police chief Guillermo Eleazar.</p>
<p>Ordained as a Franciscan priest, the American lived in the town of Naval and is accused of having abused children as young as seven, <a href="http://philippineslifestyle.com/american-priest-arrested-altar-boys/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philippine Lifestyle News</a> reported. Many of the children only had the courage to come forward after learning that he had been arrested, as Hendricks had warned them <a href="http://philippineslifestyle.com/altar-boys-jail-american-priest/">they would be sent to jail</a> if they told anyone.</p>
Securities Commission will save US$128m by taking an 8-year lease on an office in Quarry Bay
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/securities-watchdog-fleeing-hks-mad-rents/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/securities-watchdog-fleeing-hks-mad-rents/<p>The Securities and Futures Commission may have won many battles against big corporations but it has not been able to beat the savage rents needed for prime office space in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>The securities watchdog has been forced to retreat to Quarry Bay from next year. It will be shifting to Island East, a 15-minute drive from Central after officials decided to leave the Cheung Kong Center, owned by the city’s richest man Li Ka-shing.</p>
<p>The commission revealed yesterday that it will save HK$1 billion (US$128 million) by moving to an office with an eight-year lease at half the existing rental – and that will become the deposit for eventually buying an office.</p>
<p>“We have not given up the plan to buy our property,” SFC chairman Tim Lui Tim-leung told the Legislative Council&#8217;s Financial Affairs Panel.</p>
<p>The commission, which has 900 staff, found it hard to buy an office of the size it needs – 180,000 square feet – based on its HK$3 billion budget.</p>
<p>The publicly funded watchdog has paid HK$200 million in annual rent to Cheung Kong Holdings since 2013.</p>
<p>It has been credited with maintaining a high standard of corporate governance and making Hong Kong the world’s top center for raising funds for Chinese corporates, which make up more than half of the local market&#8217;s capitalization.</p>
<p>Despite its success in corporate oversight, the agency has been unable to remain in the core district given the exorbitant office prices and restraints on land availability.</p>
<p>Remarkably, even top entities like Goldman Sachs and accounting firm KPMG have had to move some of their operations outside Central.</p>
<p>Most Grade-A offices cost between HK$100 and HK$200 per square foot to rent, although some space at the International Finance Centre II, the highest building in Central with sea views, costs even more.</p>
<p>Real estate in Hong Kong has been in high demand thanks to an influx of Chinese financial institutions, from boutique funds to state-owned banks, rushing to set up offices outside the mainland.</p>
<p>Grade-A offices in Central or nearby districts like Admiralty and Sheung Wan now sell for between HK$38,000 and $50,000 per square foot.</p>
Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications ordered by the Indian Supreme Court to pay $63.7 million
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indian-supreme-court-orders-ericsson-debts-paid/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indian-supreme-court-orders-ericsson-debts-paid/<p>The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday held industrialist Anil Ambani and two directors of his Reliance Group guilty of contempt of court, saying he will go to jail for three months if he does not pay 4.53 billion rupees (US$63.7 million) to Ericsson India within four weeks.</p>
<p>Ericsson, a leading Swedish manufacturer of telecoms equipment, had filed three contempt cases against Ambani in the Supreme Court for willfully not paying debts of 5.5 billion rupees, Indian news agency ANI reported. Ericsson India had signed a seven-year deal with Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCom) in 2014 for managing and operating its network.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court also held that the trio was in breach of earlier undertakings to the court. In order to clear the contempt charges, the three must hand over 4.53 billion rupees to Ericsson within four weeks. The court also directed that 1.18 billion rupees already deposited by Reliance Group with the supreme court be disbursed to Ericsson within a week, the Press Trust of India <a href="http://www.ptinews.com/news/10397083_SC-holds-Anil-Ambani--others-guilty-of-contempt-of-court-for-wilfully-not-paying-dues-to-Ericsson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;From undertakings given by Reliance Group&#8217;s top brass, it appears they have willfully not paid the amount to Ericsson despite orders and undertakings given,&#8221; it said. The court said that the unconditional apology given by Reliance will be rejected as they had &#8220;breached the undertaking and order&#8221;. It added that the conglomerate did not adhere to the 120-day deadline and the 60-day extension given by the court in October last year to pay Ericsson’s dues.</p>
<p>RCom’s shares <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/markets/adag-stocks-fall-1-9-as-sc-holds-anil-ambani-guilty-of-contempt-in-ericsson-case-3561601.html">fell</a> 9% intraday on Wednesday after Anil Ambani was found guilty of contempt in the Ericsson case.</p>
<p>The two-judge bench comprising Justices RF Nariman and Vineet Saran criticized RCom chairman Ambani and the two Reliance Group directors—Reliance Telecom chairman Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel chairperson Chhaya Virani—for showing &#8220;cavalier attitude&#8221; to the supreme court. It imposed a fine of 10 million rupees to each to the guilty three, with failure to pay leading to one-month jail terms.</p>
<p>During the hearing on February 13 when the court reserved judgment, Ericsson had taken a dig at Ambani by referring to the controversial Rafale deal. It said that the Reliance Group had enough money to invest in the Rafale fighter-jet deal but failed to clear its debts. The charges were vehemently denied by the Reliance Group.</p>
<p>Anil Ambani&#8217;s Reliance Defence is one of the offset partners of Dassault, the French aviation major manufacturing Rafale jets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal for <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/09/article/hollande-drops-a-rafale-bomb-on-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">36 Rafale jets</a> with France in 2016. Opposition parties, especially Congress party, have alleged that corruption and irregularities have taken place in the deal to benefit Anil Ambani. The allegations were strongly denied by the Modi government, Reliance, and Dassault. But former French President François Hollande revealed that Reliance Defence was not the choice of Dassault to be its &#8220;offset&#8221; partner in the deal with India, but that the Indian government told the aviation company to join hands with Reliance.</p>
<p>Following Ericsson’s argument, Anil Ambani <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-verdict-today-in-ericssons-case-against-anil-ambani-led-reliance-communications-1996205" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the court that due to the failure of an assets sale deal with older brother Mukesh Ambani&#8217;s Reliance Jio, his Reliance Group had begun insolvency proceedings which, he claimed, meant he was not in control of the necessary funds. The assets sale was stalled after the government refused to provide immunity to Mukesh Ambani&#8217;s firm from any past-payment liabilities. As of the end of September 2018, RCom had cash and bank balances of 8.24 billion rupees and debts of 327 billion rupees.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court sacked two court masters on February 13 for tampering with the top court’s orders in the Ericsson contempt plea against RCom and Anil Ambani, The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/supreme-court-sacks-2-of-its-own-over-change-in-order-on-ambani/cid/1684489" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. In the said order, delivered on January 7, the court court had issued a notice to Ambani seeking his personal appearance. But when the said order was uploaded on the court’s website, it read: “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) dispensed with”. This had been brought to the Court’s notice by the Ericsson counsel and after investigations, it was found that the omission of the crucial word “not” in the order was not accidental.</p>
More than 8,400 cases have been recorded this year, well over last year, according to health officials
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/measles-outbreak-kills-136-in-the-philippines/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/measles-outbreak-kills-136-in-the-philippines/<p class="p2">Health officials are working hard to vaccinate children in several regions in the Philippines after thousands were struck down with measles and some 136 deaths recorded as of last Saturday.</p>
<p class="p2">The Department of Health announced last week that there were measles outbreaks in parts of Luzon, the main island, plus the Visayas in the center of the archipelago.</p>
<p class="p2">Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the majority of fatalities were children, <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/223786-duque-explanation-rise-measles-cases-philippines#cxrecs_s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rappler</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p2">Duque appealed to the public to have children vaccinated against the disease. The Department said a total of 8,443 measles cases had been reported since January 1 this year, which is 253% higher than last year. The total for this time last year was 2,393 cases.</p>
<p class="p2">“We are expanding the declaration of the outbreak from Metro Manila to the other regions as cases have increased in the past weeks,” Duque said.</p>
<p class="p2">On Monday, Duque said the number of measles cases was continuing to rise, so the outbreak was not yet under control. He said that in order to declare an outbreak is under control, there should be a decrease in the number of cases.</p>
<p class="p2">The department is aiming to vaccinate around 12 million people to prevent the number of measles cases from rising. Duque said this number would mean 95% of the population would be vaccinated to reach a &#8220;herd immunity&#8221;.</p>
<h4>Fear of vaccinations</h4>
<p class="p2">Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said the vaccination scare brought by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengvaxia_controversy">Dengvaxia controversy</a> in 2017 was one reason for the latest measles outbreak.</p>
<p class="p2">“The reason why there is a measles breakout is because of the issue involving Dengvaxia. [It made] parents scared of having their children undergo immunization,” Año said.</p>
<p class="p2">In 2017, the government suspended its school-based dengue vaccination program following concerns over the risks posed by Dengvaxia, a vaccine for dengue fever.</p>
<p class="p2">There were fears the Dengvaxia vaccine could cause more severe cases of dengue if administered on a person who had not been previously had the virus. More than 60 children reportedly died due to complications from the vaccine.</p>
<p class="p2">The Department of Health said they could have the measles outbreak under control by the end of April or the start of May.</p>
<h4>Canadian outbreak</h4>
<p>Meanwhile, there has been speculation that a measles outbreak in Canada may have been brought to the country from Vietnam.</p>
<p>Emmanuel Bilodeau, a resident in Vancouver, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that three of his sons caught measles after a trip to Vietnam earlier in February, <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-potential-source-of-canada-measles-outbreak-3883264.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VN Express</a> reported. He believed one of his sons caught the disease there and transmitted it to his siblings, who then spread the disease at school.</p>
<p>As of February 15, there were eight confirmed cases among parents, staff and students of measles in Vancouver.</p>
<p>Bilodeau and his wife said they did not vaccinate their children because they believed the MMR vaccine – for measles, mumps and rubella – may be linked to autism. However, he admitted they now know that studies suggesting such a link have been debunked.</p>
<p>In Vietnam, measles is a seasonal disease that occurs mainly during colder weather. Unvaccinated children are the main victims. This year, 192 cases of measles have been reported in Hanoi, almost 10 times the number in the same period last year.</p>
Afghanistan has long accused Islamabad of backing the insurgency, providing safe haven to terrorists
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-taliban-meet-canned-as-kabul-complains/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-taliban-meet-canned-as-kabul-complains/<p>A planned meeting between the Taliban and the Pakistani leadership has been cancelled following a complaint by the Afghan government to the United Nations about their neighbor interfering in Afghan affairs.</p>
<p>A representative of President Ashraf Ghani&#8217;s government at the United Nations sent a letter to the UN Security Council last Friday, saying an invitation for the Taliban to meet the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was a “violation of the national sovereignty of Afghanistan”.</p>
<p>The letter signed by Nazifullah Salarzai, Deputy Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN, who noted that “engagements, which are taking place under the pretext of support for peace efforts in Afghanistan, are void of any degree of coordination and consultation with the Government of Afghanistan”.</p>
<p>Salarzai confirmed the authenticity of a copy of the letter that has been circulating online.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: Exclusive copy of Afghanistan’s letter to United Nations Security Council against Pakistan’s plan of a secret meeting between Taliban (UN designated terrorists) &amp; Pak PM Imran Khan in Islamabad. Afghanistan asks Pak to act against sanctioned terrorists on its soil. <a href="https://t.co/0vggBSB2kH">pic.twitter.com/0vggBSB2kH</a></p>
<p>— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/1097128733574656000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The reports of the meeting, which were confirmed by the Taliban, sparked anger among Afghan people and officials. Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of not only supporting the Taliban insurgency but also providing safe havens to terror groups that work against its national interest.</p>
<p>The letter read: “This initiative is a source of deep regret and concern to the people and Government of Afghanistan as it amounts to the official recognition and legitimization of an armed group that poses a serious threat to security and stability of Afghanistan,” reflecting a popular opinion within the country.</p>
<h4>Relations strained over &#8216;lack of action on terrorists&#8217;</h4>
<p>Sibghat Ahmadi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, also informed local media that the letter was authentic.</p>
<p>“Yes, we have lodged a complaint. There are UN sanctions against members of the Taliban delegation which does not allow them to travel. It is a clear violation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which is a red-line for us,” he said.</p>
<p>Relations between the two countries have been strained in the last few years, after persistent demands from Kabul for Islamabad to take tangible action against terror groups operating on its territory.</p>
<p>The latest saga is hardly surprising. The Trump administration has had special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad involved in talks with the Taliban in recent months to try to set the stage for a potential peace negotiation to end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. But the Afghan <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/afghans-upset-at-being-left-out-of-peace-talks/">government has been left out</a> of several rounds of talks, largely because the Taliban refused to talk to them at this stage.</p>
<p>However, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has continued to reach out to the parties involved and pushed international stakeholders for an Afghan-owned and led peace process.</p>
<p>On Monday, in a meeting with Mr Khalilzad, President Ghani urged the Taliban and Pakistan to be open about their relations. “The Taliban should clarify their ties with Pakistan, terrorist groups, and the criminal economy,” he said.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Can&#8217;t travel&#8217;</h4>
<p>Later, the <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/taliban-postpone-pakistan-meeting-angered-afghans/29775214.html">Taliban called off their meeting</a> with Pakistani officials and said their leaders were unable to travel because they were blacklisted by the UN.</p>
<p>The insurgent group had previously said they intended to discuss “Pakistan-Afghan relations and issues pertaining to Afghan refugees and Afghan businessmen”, attempting to portray themselves as representing Afghan interests.</p>
<p>“The Islamic Emirate had arranged for their representatives to participate but unfortunately, most members of the negotiations team were unable to travel due to the US and UN blacklist and the meeting was postponed,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.</p>
<p>Many Afghans felt this excuse was “laughable”, considering the UN blacklist did not stop the Taliban leaders from travelling to Moscow, the United Arab Emirates or Iran for similar meetings over the past few months.</p>
<p>“The matter of Taliban not being able to travel to Pakistan due to UN sanctions is a laughable ruse. Having traveled out of Pakistan and far-off destinations of the world, the Taliban certainly don’t need UN permission for a meeting at home,” former Afghan deputy foreign minister Jawed Ludin said.</p>
<p>He noted the long-held suspicion among Afghans that Pakistan was providing a base for many Taliban leaders.</p>
<p>Spozmai Stanikzai, a former diplomat and student of international relations, said: &#8220;It’s a psychological war. In my view, they just want to show the US and political opposition groups in Afghanistan that the Afghan government is the main obstacle in the peace process. Otherwise, they are a rickshaw ride away from meeting Imran Khan.</p>
<p>“[The] &#8216;Quetta Shora&#8217; in Pakistan doesn’t need a visa or tickets to meet Imran Khan. They get instructions from Pakistan. After all the international pressure on Pakistan, I am sure they didn’t want to meet with the Taliban – a known terrorist group – days after attacks in Pulwana and Zahedan.&#8221;</p>
Good reasons to reject Beijing’s ‘one country, two systems’ offer, says ex-US diplomat
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hk-has-lesson-for-taiwan-on-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hk-has-lesson-for-taiwan-on-china/<p>Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has made an unequivocal statement, via an interview with CNN aired on Tuesday, that she will seek re-election next year. Tsai&#8217;s gearing up to defend her presidency comes hot on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping&#8217;s latest peaceful-return-or-war rhetoric aimed at the self-ruled island, which is seen by Beijing as a wayward province that must be recaptured and put under its suzerainty.</p>
<p>Tsai, undaunted by her Democratic Progressive Party&#8217;s thumping defeat in last year&#8217;s regional elections, has given Xi a smack in the face and vowed not to sign on to Beijing&#8217;s vision, while Xi is losing his patience and has again broached the &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; concept for achieving peaceful reunification.</p>
<p>But veteran diplomat Stephen Young, who has served as Washington&#8217;s top envoy in both Taiwan and Hong Kong, has also debunked Beijing&#8217;s blandishment in a recent column, writing that &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; had been badly tarnished by the mainland to &#8220;sharply curtail the freedoms initially promised to the people of Hong Kong.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_102941" style="width: 3500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-102941" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2017-01-20T082021Z_1_LYNXMPED0J0GV_RTROPTP_4_CALIFORNIA-TAIWAN.jpg" alt="Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen may face greater security threats than her predecessors. Photo: Reuters/Stephen Lam" width="3500" height="2334" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2017-01-20T082021Z_1_LYNXMPED0J0GV_RTROPTP_4_CALIFORNIA-TAIWAN.jpg 3500w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2017-01-20T082021Z_1_LYNXMPED0J0GV_RTROPTP_4_CALIFORNIA-TAIWAN-580x387.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 3500px) 100vw, 3500px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has made it clear that she will run again in 2020. Photo: Reuters</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_313944" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-313944" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/736.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="406" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese and Hong Kong flags fly in a piazza in Hong Kong. Photo: Weibo</figcaption></figure>
<p>Between 2010 and 2013, Young served as the US consul general to Hong Kong, and during his tenure the US was openly reprimanded by the Chinese Foreign Ministry for meddling in the city&#8217;s internal politics.</p>
<p>In his <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2019/02/18/2003709913">column in the Taipei Times</a> on Monday, Young said he recently visited Hong Kong for the first time in five years and found that despite its façade as a prosperous trade and financial center, there was an undercurrent of gloom.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mainland promises of continued autonomy have been repeatedly undermined by words and actions from the north,&#8221; said Young, adding that some international businesses were considering pulling their regional headquarters out of the former British colony to the somewhat safer climes of Singapore, which still enjoyed &#8220;unfettered rule of law.&#8221;</p>
<p>He linked Beijing&#8217;s backtracking on earlier pledges to permit Hongkongers greater self-governance to Taiwanese&#8217; cool response to Beijing’s talk of &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; for the island, as after all, &#8220;Hong Kong was meant to demonstrate the fealty of the mainland government to the spirit and letter of the 1984 Sino-British Declaration on Hong Kong that specified return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.&#8221;</p>
<p>The steady exodus of Hong Kong residents to Taiwan and elsewhere in recent years is yet another example of people&#8217;s disillusion and the city&#8217;s failed experiment of &#8220;one country, two systems,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>Young argued that Beijing&#8217;s biggest threat to the region&#8217;s peace and stability would continue to center on Taiwan, as authoritarian regimes never seem to have much patience with neighboring democracies.</p>
<p>He said that by threatening Taiwan and playing the reunification and nationalist card, Xi was bent on distracting his own people from focusing on internal woes, such as a stalling economy and the political awakening of an emerging middle class.</p>
<p>But the fact is that the US has responded in words and deeds to Beijing&#8217;s coercion.</p>
<p>The most recent developments include the Pentagon&#8217;s deployment of two destroyers through the Taiwan Strait, a sharp reminder that the US remains Taiwan’s most stalwart protector, followed by a renewed effort within the US Congress to extend an invitation, under the new Taiwan Travel Act, to Tsai to address the US legislature.</p>
Peace-loving Le Tuan Duong is offering free haircuts in the style of Donald Trump and Kim Jon-Un as a gesture of support for their upcoming summit
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/barber-brings-some-hair-diplomacy-to-talks/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/barber-brings-some-hair-diplomacy-to-talks/<p>A barber in Vietnam has convinced his customers to let their hair down during next week’s summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jon-Un by getting it cut in the same style as the American and North Korean leaders. And he is doing it all for no charge.</p>
<p>Le Tuan Duong<span class="Apple-converted-space"> admits that he started the haircuts as a bit of fun, but it has taken on a more serious tint as preparations begin in earnest for the high-level </span><span class="Apple-converted-space">talks on reducing tensions in the Korean peninsula, where north and south have never agreed on a peace settlement. </span></p>
<p>“I love peace. I hate war so much,” Duong told Reuters. “So many people in my family have died, so I support this summit very much.” The barber, who runs the Tuan Duong Beauty Academy in Hanoi, lost two of his uncles during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>Duong will be offering the free haircuts until the two-day summit begins on February 27, and there has been no shortage of takers. One of the first to volunteer was To Gia Huy, 9, who went for the high swept-back style favoured by Kim Jon-Un. “I feel happy with this haircut because people will think I look like the leader of North Korea,” he said.</p>
<p>Le Phuc Hai, 66, opted for the corn-coloured mane of Donald Trump, because “it looks great and it fits my age”.</p>
<p>The Hanoi summit is the second between Trump and Kim. The first, held in Singapore in June last year, ended with vague commitments by North Korea to stop testing nuclear weapons.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0rAknywdDZI" width="540" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
The Hong Kong market value of the seized drugs is estimated to be $780,000
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/flyer-had-two-suitcases-full-of-cannabis-buds/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/flyer-had-two-suitcases-full-of-cannabis-buds/<p>A 36-year-old man was arrested for drug trafficking when he arrived in Hong Kong from Canada on Monday after he was found to be carrying cannabis buds worth HK$6.2 million (US$789,944).</p>
<p>The man, who arrived from Vancouver, Canada, was arrested after customs officers found 40 kilograms of suspected cannabis buds in his two suitcases, <a href="https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201902/19/P2019021900512.htm?fontSize=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to a government release</a>.</p>
<p>The estimated market value of the seized cannabis buds was about HK$6.2 million.</p>
<p>The case is being followed up by the Customs Drugs Investigation Bureau, who charged the man with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug.</p>
<p>It was understood that the suspected cannabis buds were vacuum-packed and wrapped in a towel.</p>
<p>Officers are now investigating the sales channels of the suspected drugs and the background of the suspect.</p>
<p>After cannabis was legalized in Canada in October last year, police in Hong Kong busted a similar cannabis trafficking case, Oriental Daily reported. An 18-year-old man was arrested for trafficking cannabis buds with an estimated market value of HK$7 million in two suitcases when he returned from Canada.</p>
<p>The suspect told the police that he got the job on social media and that he was promised a free trip and payment of HK$100,000 (US$12,750).</p>
New e-commerce rules were reportedly brought in following intense lobbying by small businesses
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/walmart-keeps-faith-in-flipkart/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/walmart-keeps-faith-in-flipkart/<p>Though the Indian e-commerce industry was recently hit by changes in investment regulations, Walmart has reiterated confidence in the long-term prospects of its Indian online unit Flipkart.</p>
<p>Effective from February 1, the new rules aim to curb marketing practices such as offering steep discounts and striking deals with sellers to trade exclusively on their platforms.</p>
<p>They also prevent e-commerce platforms from selling products distributed by companies in which they have invested. Companies operating in this space also cannot earn more than 25% of the total revenue from a single platform.</p>
<p>This struck at the very root of business models followed by e-commerce leaders Flipkart and Amazon and caused widespread disruption, with many products disappearing from their product ranges.</p>
<p>The new rules were reportedly brought in following intense lobbying by small businesses, which are reportedly struggling to match the deep discounts and predatory competition unleashed by online retailers. The new policy was also welcomed by offline retail chains such as Future Group and Reliance Retail.</p>
<p>The US retail giant, which had acquired Flipkart last year for US$ 16 billion, expressed disappointment with the new law but claimed it retains confidence in the long-term prospects of Flipkart.</p>
<p>At an earnings call, Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon reportedly said his team was working to ensure compliance with the new rules, but also expressed his disappointment with the Indian Government&#8217;s decision, <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/walmart-ceo-unfazed-by-new-e-commerce-law-hopeful-of-future-with-flipkart-119021901260_1.html">Business Standard </a>reports.</p>
<p>McMillon, however, expressed hope that in future the Indian Government will bring in a collaborative regulatory process. He hoped to work with the government to formulate policies that will benefit the e-commerce industry, domestic manufacturers, farmers and suppliers, the daily added.</p>
<p>He was also optimistic about the Indian market given its size, low penetration in the retail channel and its fast-paced growth.</p>
<p>A few days after the new e-commerce rules came into effect, US brokerage <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/morgan-stanley-warns-walmart-may-exit-flipkart-post-new-fdi-rules/articleshow/67843595.cms">Morgan Stanley</a> speculated that Walmart may drop Flipkart if it does not see a long-term path to profitability.</p>
https://youtu.be/zrPCklC-l04, 129
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/war-hero-buried-in-korean-soil-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/war-hero-buried-in-korean-soil-2/Two students developed dengue fever within days of returning from trips to their home countries
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/dengue-fever-cases-hit-southwest-taiwan/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/dengue-fever-cases-hit-southwest-taiwan/<p>Two dengue fever cases involving foreign university students who had recently spent holidays in Indonesia and Malaysia have been confirmed in Tainan, southwestern Taiwan.</p>
<p>According to a media statement by the Tainan City Government&#8217;s dengue fever prevention and control center, the two students had been intercepted upon arrival at the airport due to them showing fever symptoms. However, the results of rapid tests for dengue fever were negative, the China Daily News reported.</p>
<p>The students, who study at different universities and live in different parts of Tainan, were released and advised to stay in their rooms on campus.</p>
<p>The first student, an Indonesian studying at National Cheng Kung University and living on campus in the East District of Tainan, was confirmed as having dengue fever on February 17.</p>
<p>The second, a Malaysian studying at Chang Jung Christian University and living on campus in Datan of Guiren District, was confirmed with dengue on February 18.</p>
<p>Both of the campuses were sterilized and given mosquito prevention measures by February 19.</p>
<p>The authorities urged the public to maintain strict environmental hygiene, mosquito control and personal protective measures both at home and during travel.</p>
<p>Any persons recently returned from journeys in Southeast Asian countries who become ill with symptoms such as fever within 14 days of arrival should seek prompt medical assistance and inform the doctor of their travel details.</p>
The domestic worker was first hospitalized in January and doctors determined that she had lupus
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-35-dies-in-hospital-in-hk/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-35-dies-in-hospital-in-hk/<p>A 35-year-old Filipino domestic worker died on Monday in Hong Kong two days after she was sent to a hospital in Tai Po, New Territories. She had been diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease.</p>
<p>Maristel P Pepito, from Baybay, Leyte, died at Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in Tai Po, <a href="http://hongkongnews.com.hk/top_stories/fdh-dies-in-tai-po-after-she-was-hospitalized-for-lupus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hongkongnews.com reported</a>.</p>
<p>It was understood that she was first hospitalized in January and doctors determined that she had lupus. She was discharged on February 5.</p>
<p>But on February 16, she was again brought to the hospital after her condition worsened. An official with the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong said Pepito had a pulmonary hemorrhage and her lupus had led to acute pneumonia. She was taken to the intensive care unit before she died.</p>
<p>Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officers visited her on Sunday, and she died the following day.</p>
<p>The official said the consulate was coordinating with the woman’s family, employer, and employment agency on the repatriation of her remains to the Philippines.</p>
The man faces 22 charges including multiple counts of robbery, gun-related charges and misdemeanors
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-american-nabbed-for-mail-theft-in-us/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-american-nabbed-for-mail-theft-in-us/<p class="p1">A Filipino-American man has been arrested for allegedly breaking into a community mailbox in Tracy, California in the United States.</p>
<p class="p1">According to the Tracy Police Department, 29-year-old Joseph Dumlao was seen breaking into a community mailbox on Choisser Court by an unidentified person. The incident happened on the evening of February 6, <a href="http://www.goldenstatenewspapers.com/tracy_press/news/two-arrests-in-unrelated-mail-thefts/article_398cab6a-2bfe-11e9-ba33-2b0407d67a39.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Golden State Newspapers</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The police said Dumlao was driving a rental van and he sped away when an officer tried to stop him. The officer gave up the chase because of unsafe speeds and the risk to citizens.</p>
<p class="p1">The next day, Dumlao was arrested after the San Joaquin County Delta Regional Auto Theft Team found the van that Dumlao was driving in Stockton. The police linked the van to Dumlao, who also had warrants for his arrest from the Stockton Police Department for robbery and from the California Highway Patrol for evading a peace officer, possession of a stolen vehicle and resisting arrest.</p>
<p class="p1">Dumlao tried to run away but was captured with the assistance of a police dog. After he was treated for bite wounds in a local hospital, the suspect was brought to San Joaquin County Jail. Dumlao was charged with 22 felonies, including five counts of robbery, seven gun-related charges and four misdemeanors. Bail was set at US$775,000.</p>
<p>The Tracy Police Department said Dumlao is believed to be one of two suspects behind a number of mail thefts in the area since the beginning of the year.</p>
Police discovered a suicide note nearby
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hong-kong-student-injured-in-suicide-attempt/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hong-kong-student-injured-in-suicide-attempt/<p>A 19-year-old female student called the police after she attempted to kill herself by jumping from a building in a university campus in Sha Tin, the New Territories on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The student surnamed Lee, who is said to be a student of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). attempted to commit suicide by jumping from Mong Man Wai Building on the university campus at 4am, Oriental Daily reported.</p>
<p>It was understood that she jumped from the 8<sup>th</sup> floor rooftop and landed on a ledge on the 7<sup>th</sup> floor. Although she suffered injuries, she remained conscious and called the police asking for help.</p>
<p>Police officers and firemen arrived and rescued her from the ledge before sending her to hospital for medical treatment. She was said to be in stable condition.</p>
<p>Police searched the area and found a suicide note revealing that the student was under pressure from her studies.</p>
<p>A spokesperson of the CUHK said a security staff member accompanied the student to hospital, where she was later visited by university staff. The university said they will provide necessary assistance to the student and cooperate with the police investigation.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://samaritans.org.hk/">Samaritans</a> run a 24-hour multilingual suicide prevention hotline on +852 2896 0000; emails can be sent to <a href="mailto:jo@samaritans.org.hk">jo@samaritans.org.hk</a>.</p>
The Filipino tricycle driver, who pleaded guilty, was jailed for 12 to 20 years and fined 100,000 pesos
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-jailed-for-raping-tourist-in-philippines/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-jailed-for-raping-tourist-in-philippines/<p class="p1">A Filipino tricycle driver was handed a jail term of 12 to 20 years for raping an Irish tourist in El Nido, Palawan in the Philippines.</p>
<p class="p1">The attack happened around 4am on February 13 after an Irish woman and her friends took a tricycle driven by the suspect <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/NINTCHDBPICT000469286283-e1550231744139.jpg?w=960" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Perry Gaspe</a>, 39, <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/balitambayan/promdi/685366/tricycle-driver-na-gumahasa-sa-turistang-irish-sa-palawan-sinentensiyahan-na/story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GMA News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">As the victim stayed at a different hostel from her friends, she got off before them. Gaspe insisted that he walked the woman to her hostel while her friends waited in the tricycle.</p>
<p class="p1">When they passed a narrow lane, Gaspe pinned the woman to the ground and raped her before running away. Police received reports at 7am and arrested Gaspe at 9am on suspicion of rape, <a href="https://www.thesun.ie/news/3760017/irish-backpacker-alleged-rape-philippines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Irish Sun</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">After the suspect was taken to a police station, the Irish woman, accompanied by a friend and a female police officer, identified him as being the man who allegedly raped her.</p>
<p class="p1">Gaspe pleaded guilty to rape and was sentenced to 12 to 20 years&#8217; imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 pesos (US$1,918) for violating the Anti-Rape Law of 1997. Gaspe will be transferred to Iwahig Prsion and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.</p>
The Indonesian allegedly hurt the toddler at a Kuala Lumpur nursery where she worked
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/carer-pleads-not-guilty-to-child-abuse/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/carer-pleads-not-guilty-to-child-abuse/<p>At a Malaysian Sessions Court on Friday, a 37-year-old Indonesian carer pleaded not guilty to one count of abusing a four-year-old girl at a nursery in Cheras, a district of Kuala Lumpur, in October last year.</p>
<p>On February 15, 2019, the defendant Suriawati Sunarto made her plea after the charge was read before Judge Edwin MM Edwin Paramjothy, <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/02/15/indonesian-maid-accused-of-abusing-four-year-old-girl-pleads-not-guilty/1723420" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Malay Mail</a> reported.</p>
<p>The court learned that the accused deliberately hurt the toddler, leaving bruises on her left arm at a nursery in Cheras on October 26, 2018.</p>
<p>Upon conviction of Section 31 (1) (a) of the Child Act 2001, offenders shall face a fine up to 50,000 ringgit (US$12,283), or imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both.</p>
<p>The defendant, who had been ordered to submit her passport to the court, was released on bail at 10,000 ringgit (US$2,456) with two Malaysian sureties.</p>
<p>The case is scheduled to reconvene on March 18.</p>
Airline staff conducted a search after the flight but found nothing
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/scorpion-causes-panic-on-lion-air-flight/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/scorpion-causes-panic-on-lion-air-flight/<p>Passengers on a Lion Air flight last week panicked when a large scorpion was spotted crawling from an overhead locker.</p>
<p>The scorpion was caught on camera during a flight on February 14 in Indonesia from Pekanbaru to Jakarta, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/scorpion-lion-air-flight-plane-overhead-bins-lockers-a8785941.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Independent</a> reported. Karim Taslin, a passenger on the flight, shared the incident on Instagram after the scorpion appeared just above his head.</p>
<p>A woman later discovered the scorpion when she tried to retrieve her bags after the plane had landed in Jakarta.</p>
<p>Taslin said he and two other passengers saw the scorpion and quickly rushed out of their seats. He reportedly asked the cabin crew for assistance, but by the time they arrived, the animal had disappeared.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Lion Air said that staff members carried out an extensive search after the passengers and cargo were removed from the aircraft, but no animals were found.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A_6XfNW5654" width="540" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
Salvador was said to have bought ‘ice’ outside a bar in Wan Chai ‘to ease her depression’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-on-drug-charge-gets-suspended-jail-term/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipina-on-drug-charge-gets-suspended-jail-term/<p>A 33-year-old Filipina was fined and given suspended jail terms at Eastern Magistrates Court on Monday after pleading guilty to four offenses, including possession of the drug “ice”.</p>
<p>Defendant Cheryll Salvador, who worked for a sportswear company in Manila, was arrested at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island on November 23 last year when she resisted and injured a customs officer who wanted to inspect her bag, <a href="http://www.sunwebhk.com/2019/02/pinay-in-ferry-pier-struggle-fined-2k.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sunwehhk.com reported</a>.</p>
<p>Salvador was stopped by an officer who wanted to inspect her bag, which prompted her to start searching in the bag, saying she needed a candy – instead of handing her bag to the officer.</p>
<p>The female officer, who suspected that there was contraband in the defendant’s handbag, tried to take the bag but Salvador resisted and injured the officer&#8217;s left hand. The officer had to be sent to hospital for treatment.</p>
<p>When Customs officers searched her bag, they found a plastic bag, a glass beaker containing the drug, four foil packs containing five tablets of zopiclone, a regulated drug listed as a Part 1 poison in the city. The defendant was arrested.</p>
<p>Salvador’s lawyer pleaded for leniency, saying the defendant was rushing to catch a ferry to Macau as she had to check in an hour later for a flight to Manila.</p>
<p>Salvador was said to be depressed at the time as she had broken up with her boyfriend the night before. She bought the packet of “ice” for HK$100 (US$12.70) outside a bar in Wan Chai to ease her depression.</p>
<p>Magistrate Lam Tsz-kam fined her $2,000 for obstructing the customs officer, and gave her suspended jail terms for possession of 0.32 grams of ice, equipment to inhale narcotics and attempting to export several regulated drugs.</p>
Combined GDP of Greater Bay Area was US$1.58 trillion in 2017; some in HK fear losing autonomy
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/grand-plan-to-pull-hk-macau-closer-to-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/grand-plan-to-pull-hk-macau-closer-to-china/<p>Hong Kong has been accorded a leading role as Beijing aims to integrate the former British colony into a mega conurbation of boomtowns that will also include Macau and nine neighboring cities in Guangdong province, with a stated goal to rival and even overtake the economic prowess of New York, San Francisco and Tokyo as well as their sprawling agglomerations.</p>
<p>The much-touted Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area is the brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who first coined the idea of forming megalopolises in the Pearl River Delta in 2017.</p>
<p>Now the lofty initiative has a master plan for implementation, after Monday&#8217;s release of a detailed guideline that has mapped out each city&#8217;s position on Beijing&#8217;s grandiose vision for a Bay Area as a world-class economic and innovation dynamo.</p>
<p>Hong Kong will spearhead the project in finance, trade, aviation, logistics, legal and professional services and innovation and tertiary education, all areas of its own expertise, to elevate its competitiveness as a world city, as stipulated in Beijing&#8217;s plan.</p>
<p>Macau will focus on tourism and leisure, while Guangdong&#8217;s capital Guangzhou will cement its status as a trading and transportation hub and Shenzhen, which already boosts a gross domestic product bigger than Hong Kong&#8217;s, will double down on innovation, research and development as well as technology-intensive industries as China&#8217;s answer to Silicon Valley. Seven smaller but affluent cities in Guangdong province, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Zhaoqing and Jiangmen, are also covered by the ambitious blueprint.</p>
<p>The project document includes a medium-term goal, which stretches to 2022, while the long-term vision is geared toward 2035.</p>
<p>The Greater Bay Area is now home to 68 million people and accounts for 10% of China&#8217;s GDP, or US$1.58 trillion in 2017, about the size of South Korea or Australia.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-313560" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_0256.jpg" alt="" width="1940" height="1100" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_0256.jpg 1940w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_0256-768x435.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_0256-1568x889.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1940px) 100vw, 1940px" /></p>
<figure id="attachment_130614" style="width: 1281px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-130614" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iStock-507751520.jpg" alt="Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province in China. Photo: iStock" width="1281" height="819" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iStock-507751520.jpg 1281w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iStock-507751520-580x371.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1281px) 100vw, 1281px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, will consolidate its edge in trade, commerce and transportation. Photo: iStock</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_289949" style="width: 1898px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-289949" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/7z9NWmAcGeAUfNmj6yNoQFJjDtbBxmCbL0yWwy9MlsM.jpg" alt="Sprawling skyscrapers in Shenzhen, now a booming tech and financial hub in China. Photo: Xinhua" width="1898" height="1264" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/7z9NWmAcGeAUfNmj6yNoQFJjDtbBxmCbL0yWwy9MlsM.jpg 1898w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/7z9NWmAcGeAUfNmj6yNoQFJjDtbBxmCbL0yWwy9MlsM-580x386.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1898px) 100vw, 1898px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sprawling skyscrapers in Shenzhen, now a booming tech and financial hub in China. Photo: Xinhua</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_159313" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-159313" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Macau-China-Casinos-Skyline-Gambling-August-15-2017.jpg" alt="Macau, China city skyline at dusk." width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Macau-China-Casinos-Skyline-Gambling-August-15-2017.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Macau-China-Casinos-Skyline-Gambling-August-15-2017-580x387.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The gaming hub of Macau will focus on leisure and tourism. Photo: Xinhua</figcaption></figure>
<p>Officials in Hong Kong have been quick to praise Beijing&#8217;s promulgation of the master plan, hailing it &#8220;a momentous day,&#8221; despite the mixed responses in the city, with some worrying that further economic integration could occur at the expense of Hong Kong&#8217;s own autonomy and uniqueness. The city operates under the &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; framework with Beijing&#8217;s pledge of non-intervention other than in defense and diplomacy, after it was handed back by London in 1997.</p>
<p>One opposition lawmaker said: &#8220;Hong Kong is a free economy, one of the freest markets in the world for close to a hundred years. Is that going to change&#8221; with Beijing&#8217;s top-down planning and role-assigning?</p>
<p>The plan has also outlined ways to make it easier for Hong Kong and Macau residents to study, live and work across the border, including encouraging them to join the mainland&#8217;s civil service and cutting red tape to allow motorists in the two cities to drive freely in the Greater Bay Area, among others.</p>
<p>The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city&#8217;s de facto central bank, says it has been working with its mainland counterpart to make it easier for Hong Kong residents to set up bank accounts in Greater Bay Area cities.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are different processes in different cities in terms of the requirements, documentations &#8230; so the first objective is to standardize these requirements so that Hong Kong residents in any part of the Bay Area would meet with the same requirements,&#8221; it said.</p>
<p>To boost connectivity, more intercity express railroads, metro networks and highways will be built. The scrapping of roaming charges will also be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, some scholars in Hong Kong say Beijing&#8217;s drive for a Greater Bay Area could be the final opportunity for Hong Kong to avoid head-on rivalry with the region, which is catching up fast, with Guangzhou also set to surpass Hong Kong in GDP as soon as this year.</p>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s annual economic output was larger than the entire province of Guangdong and equal to a quarter of China&#8217;s total in 1997, yet its share had nosedived to about 3% by 2018.</p>
<p>Anthony Yeh of the University of Hong Kong told RTHK that Hong Kong could risk becoming the &#8220;next Liverpool&#8221; if it filed to outcompete Guangzhou and Shenzhen, referring to the port city in England that experienced economic recessions after the 1970s.</p>
President Joko Widodo is lowering gas prices to win votes, a populist move that cash-strapped state energy giant Pertamina will be forced to absorb
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/fuel-prices-drive-indonesias-election-debate/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/fuel-prices-drive-indonesias-election-debate/<p>When Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was forced to raise fuel prices by more than 30% in mid-2008 in response to the global oil market soaring to a record $140 a barrel, he was clearly worried that the unpopular move would threaten his re-election chances.</p>
<p>But as the world price eased off later that year, he returned prices to their previous lower level in three incremental steps – a move he later credited for his resounding re-election win in July 2009, despite the commanding lead he had built over rival Megawati Sukarnoputri.</p>
<p>A decade later, with Indonesia still reluctant to link domestic fuel to global market prices, President Joko Widodo has adopted the same, limited tactic ahead of this April’s presidential election, though this time with Brent crude sitting at $64 a barrel and looking a lot more stable than in 2008-2009.</p>
<p>State-owned oil company Pertamina announced on February 10 that it would lower prices of non-subsidized gasoline by up to 800 rupiah (6 US cents) a liter, in line with a drop in the global price and a marginal strengthening of the rupiah against the US dollar.</p>
<p>Under the new policy, the price of Pertamex Plus was set at 11,200 rupiah (79 cents) and Pertamex 92 at 9,850 rupiah (69 cents), down from 12,00 rupiah and 10,200 rupiah respectively, while Pertalite 90 – which has largely replaced low-octane Premium as the cheap fuel of choice &#8212; remains at its existing level of 7,650 rupiah (54 cents).</p>
<p>Prices for different octanes of diesel were marginally reduced to between 11,700 rupiah and 10,200 rupiah a liter, and the charge for subsidized Premium was cut from 6,550 rupiah to 6,450 rupiah – but only on Java and the neighboring eastern islands of Madura and Bali.</p>
<figure id="attachment_209939" style="width: 1596px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-209939" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Motorcycle-Election-Campaign-April-8-2018-e1550634791502.jpg" alt="Indonesian President Joko Widodo poses with a Royal Enfield motorbike during his visit at Pelabuhan Ratu beach in Sukabumi, Indonesia, April 8, 2018. Photo: Antara Foto/Puspa Perwitasari via Reuters" width="1596" height="1156" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Motorcycle-Election-Campaign-April-8-2018-e1550634791502.jpg 1596w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Motorcycle-Election-Campaign-April-8-2018-e1550634791502-768x556.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Motorcycle-Election-Campaign-April-8-2018-e1550634791502-1568x1136.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Indonesian President Joko Widodo poses on a motorbike during a visit to Pelabuhan Ratu beach in Sukabumi, Indonesia, April 8, 2018. Photo: Antara Foto/Puspa Perwitasari via Reuters</figcaption></figure>
<p>According to GlobalPetrolPrices.com, Indonesia currently sits in 40th place among 164 countries on a list where fuel prices range from the cheapest (Venezuela, Sudan, Iran and Kuwait) to the most expensive (Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Monaco and Norway).</p>
<p>That is based on an average price of 10,510 rupiah (74 cents) a liter, much lower than the global average of $1.09, and well below that of Singapore (1.51 cents), Laos ($1.16), Thailand ($1.04), the Philippines (94 cents) and Cambodia (91 cents). Only Malaysia, Myanmar and Brunei are cheaper in Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>Soon after he was elected in 2014, Widodo won widespread acclaim by going ahead with a promise to increase fuel prices by more than 30% in an effort to cut $8 billion from the country’s annual $23 billion fuel subsidy bill &#8212; something the outgoing Yudhoyono had refused to do.</p>
<p>But last year the government changed tack, increasing energy subsidies by nearly 70% – from 94.5 trillion ($6.7 billion) to 163.5 trillion rupiah ($11.5 billion) &#8211; and introducing new measures to regulate the prices of non-subsidized fuel due to inflation concerns.</p>
<p>That hasn’t been the only electoral inducement. Indonesia’s 2019 budget sets aside 381 trillion rupiah ($26 billion) in social spending, a 32% increase over 2018, mostly to be spent on the government’s so-called Family Hope, National Health and Small Business Credit programs to support the country’s poorest households.</p>
<p>It will also widen the number of households eligible to receive assistance from the Non-Cash Food Assistance program from 10 million to 15.6 million households in a further effort to reduce the official poverty rate from the current 9.8%.</p>
<figure id="attachment_167840" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-167840" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Indonesia-Pertamina-Oil-and-Gas-filling-Station-June-18-2013--e1550634877340.jpg" alt="An attendant mans a fuel pump at a Pertamina fuel station, a state-owned petroleum company in Jakarta. Photo: AFP/Romeo Gacad " width="1600" height="1064" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Indonesia-Pertamina-Oil-and-Gas-filling-Station-June-18-2013--e1550634877340.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Indonesia-Pertamina-Oil-and-Gas-filling-Station-June-18-2013--e1550634877340-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Indonesia-Pertamina-Oil-and-Gas-filling-Station-June-18-2013--e1550634877340-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An attendant pumps gas at a Pertamina fuel station in Jakarta. Photo: AFP/Romeo Gacad</figcaption></figure>
<p>Most analysts believe fuel prices will return to their old levels after April’s presidential and legislative elections, but in the meantime the burden will fall once again on Pertamina, which has already had to shoulder the extra costs associated with the same-price policy introduced across the country in 2017.</p>
<p>Previously, customers in Papua and other eastern Indonesian islands, in particular, had to pay significantly more for their fuel than anywhere else in the archipelago because of the high transport costs Pertamina must now absorb.</p>
<p>“Oil prices may be down from their highs in October ($81.03 a barrel), but now is the time to keep prices firm and help restore Pertamina’s finances, especially the costly one-price policy,” says one oil analyst. “They may make money at current prices, but I suspect that doesn’t cover the one-price costs.”</p>
<p>Moreover, Pertamina has also been saddled with the government’s policy of taking over the country’s expiring oil and gas concessions, a nationalist program that has already seen a 34% drop in production at East Kalimantan’s Mahakam block, the country’s second largest gas-field.</p>
<p>Analysts say while energy nationalism is understandable, leaving Pertamina as the sole owner and operator makes little sense when there is a need for efficiency, cost effectiveness and a high degree of technological skill and capital investment to maintain declining fields.</p>
<p>“The extra costs may not show up on the national budget now, but if Pertamina needs to be rescued, then it most certainly will,” notes a former senior official. ”The ratings agencies are already beginning to take notice and this could lead to a (credit rating) downgrade.”</p>
<p>Moody’s said last October that while Pertamina was well-positioned to cope with a rise in capital spending and execution risk, Indonesia needed major investments &#8212; presumably from foreign oil firms &#8212; to prevent a fall in overall oil and gas production.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Pertamina revealed it was cutting its 2019 spending target by about a quarter, to between $4.2 billion and $4.5 billion, after the new upstream acquisitions and its costly integration with state gas company PGN in late 2018.</p>
<figure id="attachment_126022" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-126022" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Indonesia-Oil-Gas-Pertamina-2011-e1550635051474.jpg" alt="An Indoensian oil worker opens a gauge near crude oil tanks on Bunyu island, Indonesia's East Kalimantan province. Photo: Reuters/Beawiharta" width="1600" height="1080" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Indonesia-Oil-Gas-Pertamina-2011-e1550635051474.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Indonesia-Oil-Gas-Pertamina-2011-e1550635051474-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Indonesia-Oil-Gas-Pertamina-2011-e1550635051474-1568x1058.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An Indonesian oil worker opens a gauge near crude oil tanks on Bunyu island in Indonesia&#8217;s East Kalimantan province. Photo: Reuters/Beawiharta</figcaption></figure>
<p>It also said it was targeting a profit of $1.5 billion to $2 billion in 2019, below last year’s projected $2.3 billion; the company’s overall financial performance for 2018 has not yet been disclosed, but its first half profit of $384 million was the lowest in four years.</p>
<p>Widodo signed off on a shock October 11 fuel price increase during the International Monetary Fund-World Bank conference held in Bali last October, then scrapped it an hour after it was announced when told the impact it would have on the purchasing power of low-income Indonesians.</p>
<p>With the world price climbing towards $80, the average 7% price increase for Premium and diesel had in fact been decided the previous month, along with a hike in high-octane Pertamax used by wealthier car owners which remained in force until this month.</p>
<p>Wall Street analysts expect the world oil price to stay in the $68-73 range through 2019, lower than the $75 assumption in Indonesia’s 2019 budget, which was a lot more realistic than usual. But the same analysts say a number of economic and geopolitical risks, including the US-China trade dispute, could still cause price spikes.</p>
<p>After peaking at 1.7 million barrels in the mid-1990s, Indonesia finally became a net oil importer in 2009 and now has an oil and gas deficit of $12.4 billion, by far the single biggest contributor to the country’s troubling 8.5% trade deficit last year.</p>
<p>Although there was no public clamor for a drop in fuel prices, Indonesians generally regard subsidies as their right, even if global conditions sometimes mean price fluctuations. For their part, successive governments have come to see the subsidies not as a financial burden, but as a social obligation.</p>
<p>Under those circumstances, reducing prices becomes almost irrelevant – as does any effort to cut traffic congestion. “If you keep prices low, people will have no interest in conservation,” says one former government official who worked on economic issues. “And it doesn’t educate them about living in the real world.”</p>
231 người di cư bị tạm giữ tại Đài Loan, hầu hết là người Việt Nam và Indonesia, đã được kiểm tra sức khỏe
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vnm-biet-on-vi-da-duoc-kham-suc-khoe-mien-phi/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vnm-biet-on-vi-da-duoc-kham-suc-khoe-mien-phi/<p><iframe src="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/audio/postId/11038378?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.podbean.com%2Fmedia%2Fshare%2Fpb-ksevk-a86eaa&amp;version=1" width="100%" height="122" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" data-name="pd-iframe-player"></iframe></p>
<p>Cơ quan Di trú Quốc gia Đài Loan Đài Loan và một tổ chức từ thiện địa phương đã tiến hành kiểm tra và tư vấn y tế miễn phí cho những người nước ngoài bị tạm giữ vào Chủ nhật tại một trại tạm giữ người nhập cư. Trại ở Cao Hùng mới khai trương được ba tháng chứa tới 231 người.</p>
<p>Vào ngày 17 tháng 2, hàng chục nhân viên y tế, y tá, dược sĩ và phiên dịch của Hiệp hội Y khoa Quốc tế Tzu Chi (TIMA) đã chung tay cung cấp một loạt các dịch vụ chuyên môn cho di dân tại Trại Cao Hùng, Liberty Times đưa tin.</p>
<p>231 di dân bị giam giữ hầu hết là người Việt Nam và Indonesia, đã được các bác sỹ gia đình, chuyên viên nhãn khoa, nội khoa, phẫu thuật và đông y khám.</p>
<p>Họ cũng được kiểm tra huyết áp và đường huyết.</p>
<p>Siti Nurhipayah, 32 tuổi, cho biết cô không bao giờ mong được nhận các dịch vụ nha khoa từ chính quyền Đài Loan mặc dù đã bị bắt và bị giam giữ vì phạm pháp.</p>
<p>Một quan chức của Cơ quan quản lý xuất nhập cảnh miền Nam cho biết khá nhiều người bị giam giữ cũng là những cư dân tạm thời hiện bị suy sụp tinh thần hoặc bệnh tật.</p>
<p>Kiểm tra và tư vấn y tế miễn phí là ân điển cuối cùng của chính quyền Đài Loan trước khi gởi trả những di dân này về nước.</p>
<p>Original: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-detainees-grateful-for-free-checkups/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Migrant detainees grateful for free checkups</a></p>
William Speakman, VC, fell in love with country he fought for, made peace with former enemies
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/war-hero-buried-in-korean-soil/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/war-hero-buried-in-korean-soil/<p>Sixty five years after the guns fell silent in Korea, the ashes of veteran William Speakman were lowered into the ground on Tuesday at the United Nations Cemetery in Busan, South Korea.</p>
<p>Under grey skies, it was a poignant ceremony. Young men killed in combat are customarily buried in the soil on which they fight, but it is a rarity for old soldiers to be interred in distant battlegrounds – particularly Western troops who fought in the Asian wars of the 20<sup>th</sup> century.</p>
<p>But Briton Speakman, who passed away in June 2018, had demanded he be buried in South Korea. And he was no ordinary soldier.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zrPCklC-l04?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Slaughterground: Hill 217</strong></p>
<p>His early military career had not been promising. Too young to fight in World War II, stationed in Germany, Italy and Hong Kong, “Big Bill” – so named for his six-foot-six height &#8211; had often been in trouble for drinking and brawling. Keen to depart barrack for battlefield, he volunteered for Korea, where war had been raging since North Korean invaded South on 25 June 1950.</p>
<p>It was in Korea, on 4 November 1951, on the frozen slopes of Hill 217, that he achieved nobility.</p>
<p>Speakman was assigned to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, a British infantry battalion fighting under the United Nations Command, the US-led multinational force assisting South Korea against, first, North Korea invasion, and subsequently, Chinese intervention. By November 1951, the war had become a meat-grinder: A hideous struggle for barren hills along what would subsequently become the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313703" style="width: 1338px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313703" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apocalypse-North-of-Seoul.jpg" alt="" width="1338" height="950" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apocalypse-North-of-Seoul.jpg 1338w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Apocalypse-North-of-Seoul-768x545.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1338px) 100vw, 1338px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Thunder in the hills: Korea at war, 1951. Photo: Mervyn McCord/Royal Ulster Rifles Museum</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hill 217 was one of those strategic sites. On November 4, Chinese artillery began to thunder down: “It started boiling that afternoon,” Speakman recalled in conversations with this writer in 2015. Some 6,000 shells churned up the KOSB positions. The terrain was cratered, trenches collapsed and huge palls of dust spread across the darkening sky.</p>
<p>The storm of high explosive and whirling steel was just preparation. In late afternoon, thousands of Chinese infantry stormed the positions held by the 600 Scots.</p>
<p>Speakman was in the rear, tasked with priming crates of grenades. As radio reports came in of position after position being swamped, Speakman stood. Asked what he was doing, he replied &#8211; in the harsh frontline argot of the time &#8211; “I’m going to shift some of those bloody Chinks.”</p>
<p>He acted without orders. &#8220;We had to get the wounded off the hill: that was big for me, while I was able bodied, I had to get them down,&#8221; he recalled. &#8220;I felt the need to do my little bit.”</p>
<p>“My little bit.” It is difficult to imagine the nightmare scenes that unfolded on the rocky contours of Hill 217 as evening fell and as Speakman single-handedly charged up the hill into the midst of the enemy troops swarming over the strongpoint.</p>
<p>Aimed fire was impossible, he remembered; there were too many enemy, and no time to work the bolt of a rifle. Instead, Speakman had filled his pockets and pouches with the grenades. These became the primary weapon in the close-range maelstrom the former bar brawler became embroiled in. The soil was frozen solid, so when Speakman volleyed his bombs, they bounced and detonated in the air, creating a wider spread of shrapnel, and inflicting greater casualties, than if they had burst on the ground.</p>
<p>Other men, inspired, joined Speakman as he made repeated attacks, returning to the lower slopes only to obtain more grenades. Wounded in the shoulder and leg, he had to be ordered to receive field dressings. Then he continued attacking. Along Hill 217’s ridges, the bodies literally piled up.</p>
<p>Some would later attribute Speakman’s berserk fury to drunkenness. A legend arose that when he ran out of grenades, he hurled beer bottles at the enemy. He angrily denied both rumors. &#8220;Take it from me: No beer bottle was thrown &#8211; our business was to fight, not drink!&#8221; he said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313698" style="width: 1453px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313698" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman.jpeg" alt="" width="1453" height="1286" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman.jpeg 1453w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-768x680.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1453px) 100vw, 1453px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">William Speakman, VC. Photo: The Speakman Family</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>Victoria Cross</strong></p>
<p>Given the whirlwind confusion and trauma of the night’s battle, it is unsurprising that Speakman could explain little about it and recalled few details, even though he fought for a remarkable six hours: His first post-battle memory was waking in hospital in Japan. He was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross – the highest award for gallantry in battle that the UK can bestow.</p>
<p>Although more Britons were killed in Korea than in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghan conflicts combined, just four VCs were awarded in the three-year war. One went to Colonel James Carne, commander of the “Glorious Glosters,” a battalion that was annihilated after a desperate three-day stand against a Chinese division.</p>
<p>Two were posthumous. Both were granted to soldiers taking part in actions very similar to Speakman’s.</p>
<p>Major Kenny Muir of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders won his when, after his battalion had been mistakenly napalm bombed by the US Air Force, he led 12 men to hold off counter-attacking North Korean troops. He was killed directing a last-ditch defence which won time for the smoking wounded to be evacuated. Lieutenant Philip Curtis of the Glosters won his by single-handedly taking out a Chinese position that had pinned down his overrun company, enabling survivors to escape. (In a tragic footnote, his men subsequently learned that Curtis had volunteered for Korea after losing his wife and baby in childbirth.)</p>
<p><strong>War and peace</strong></p>
<p>Uncomfortable with the fame of being the only living Korean War VC – Muir and Curtis were dead; Carne was in a POW camp – Speakman volunteered for a second tour in Korea. After that conflict wound down, he joined special forces and served in Malaya, hunting Chinese communists through the jungle.</p>
<p>But although he denied ever suffering from post-traumatic stress, he was a troubled man.</p>
<p>A heavy drinker, near the end of his two decades of military service, he was convicted of stealing. He married three times and divorced three times. Broke, he sold his VC to subsidize repairs to the roof of his house. (He would later obtain a replica.) He joined the Merchant Navy, and subsequently moved to South Africa, where he worked in security, before returning to the UK in his twilight years.</p>
<p>And he mellowed. He gave up drinking, and felt no hatred toward his former foes. “You can’t have enmity,” he said of the Chinese. “In this day and age, you have to get on with people, we are so cosmopolitan now, even in our own country. It’s nice to have them.”</p>
<p>Invited to visit Korea by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, he was amazed and moved at the progress the formerly war-shattered nation had achieved. An agrarian, peasant economy in the 1950s, South Korea was a high-tech powerhouse and thriving democracy by the millennium.</p>
<p>“They have made South Korea into a wonderful place,” Speakman would enthuse to a comrade, as recalled by British Ambassador to Korea Simon Smith. “It was worth it going over there. I really do love Korea and its people.”</p>
<p>On his last trip, in 2015, the craggy, wheelchair-bound warrior was photographed hugging Korean children. At a ceremony in his honor, he donated his medals (in fact replicas) to the Minister of Patriot’s and Veterans Affairs. “I decided before I died I would do something with this VC,” Speakman said. “Because it originated in South Korea, I thought it had to come back to South Korea.”</p>
<p>The set is today displayed at Seoul’s War Memorial.</p>
<p><strong>‘Welcome back’</strong></p>
<p>Four relatives accompanied Speakman’s ashes to Korea. They were greeted at Incheon International Airport by a South Korean honor guard and the Minister of Patriots’ and Veterans Affairs. A letter from President Moon Jae-in was read out.</p>
<p>In 2015, Speakman had asked to have his ashes scattered over the Imjin River, the strategic valley that ran through the war like a blood meridian; Hill 217, or Mount Maryang, today lies just miles north of it, in the DMZ. However, ash scatterings are illegal in South Korea. As a compromise, he was laid to rest at the UN Cemetery in Busan.</p>
<p>“His life changed here [in Korea] so it is only fitting that he lies here now,” his daughter Susie, one of the visiting relatives, told Asia Times. “It was Dad’s final wish, and it is great to see him on his way.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_313700" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313700" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-laid-to-rest.jpeg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-laid-to-rest.jpeg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-laid-to-rest-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-laid-to-rest-1568x1176.jpeg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Members of his family bury the ashes of Bill Speakman, VC. Photo: Andrew Salmon/Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>His funeral was attended by local veterans, officers of the UN Command and diplomats. A piper’s lament was played and wreaths were laid by diplomats, ministers and generals A salute was fired as his ashes were lowered into the grave. .</p>
<p>“The most fitting place for him to be was with his former comrades,” said his son Caspar, referring to the 885 British soldiers buried in Busan &#8211; including fellow VC holders Curtis and Muir.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313702" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313702" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-family-members-and-Piper.jpeg" alt="" width="1600" height="1026" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-family-members-and-Piper.jpeg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-family-members-and-Piper-768x492.jpeg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-family-members-and-Piper-1568x1005.jpeg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Members of the Speakman family at the UN Cemetery in Busan, with a bagpiper from the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who had flown from the UK for the occasion. Photo: Andrew Salmon/Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>Local school children gave gifts to the Speakman family and laid wreaths. National media was in attendance and Speakman’s return did not escape the attention of netizens,</p>
<p>“RIP, sir,” wrote Sung-min Lee, a restaurateur and former soldier on a social media post. “And welcome back.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_313699" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313699" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-UN-Cemetery.jpeg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-UN-Cemetery.jpeg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-UN-Cemetery-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bill-Speakman-UN-Cemetery-1568x1176.jpeg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The British sector of the UN Cemetery, Busan, South Korea. Photo: Andrew Salmon/Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
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US president faces tough sell to vocal policy hawks on both sides of the political aisle
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/political-storm-clouds-in-us-over-china-trade-deal/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/political-storm-clouds-in-us-over-china-trade-deal/<p>Fresh off what proved to be a stinging political defeat for Donald Trump in an immigration policy fight with Democrats, the US president is in desperate need for a “win.” Judging from his recent comments, he is gearing up to sell a trade deal with China as just that.</p>
<p>But amid furious lobbying efforts from much of the business community for ending the costly tariff battle, there are potentially equal and opposite forces building that could derail a trade deal widely expected to come out of current talks.</p>
<p>Vice-Premier Liu He arrived in Washington on Monday, leading a delegation that will continue negotiations on Thursday. President Trump reiterated that the March 1 deadline to come to an agreement is not set in stone, saying Monday that it is “not a magical date.”</p>
<p>Unless Liu is bringing new, more substantial concessions on core “structural” issues, calls for Trump to abandon ship and increase tariffs will grow deafeningly loud in some circles. That includes among conservative media commentators who have proven successful in changing Trump’s mind in the past.</p>
<p>The same vicious circle helped propel Trump to force a government shutdown on the immigration issue, against the advice of most in his own party.</p>
<p>“It would be better to hit Beijing with higher tariffs and wait for them to come to us with a better deal in a second Trump term; a distinct possibility since China needs trade with America far more than we need it with them,” a Fox News editorial argued on Sunday after Trump trumpeted the “big progress being made on soooo many different fronts!” in trade talks.</p>
<p>Well known to be Trump’s favorite news outlet, Fox News was quick to criticize Trump’s failure to negotiate a better deal with Democrats on funding for a border wall.</p>
<p>The poster child for China hawks in Washington, Gordon Chang, wrote that “there was virtually no progress on ‘structural’ issues in the just-concluded U.S.-China trade talks in Beijing, and unfortunately there won’t be any unless President Donald Trump decides to walk away from the ongoing negotiations.”</p>
<p>Perhaps more disconcerting for those who are worried that a deal might fall apart is the fact that even free-traders have begun to express anxiety that Trump might pass up an opportunity to pressure China.</p>
<p>&#8220;Without enforcement, this deal fails,&#8221; Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs at the US-China Chamber of Commerce said in an interview with CNBC. &#8220;Implementation and enforcement are going to be two key elements &#8211; so you need to have implementation, you need to have follow-through, but you need to have enforcement mechanisms that will ensure that both sides have trust that this deal is sustaining and verifiable.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the answer as to what kind of a binding enforcement mechanism will be palatable to China remains elusive.</p>
<p>One thing is for certain, Trump has shown a willingness to back out of deals at the last minute.</p>
<p>At least once last spring, before the implementation of the first tranche of tariffs on Chinese goods, it appeared that a deal had been struck with China. That deal looked a lot like what has been reported of Chinese concessions in this deal so far.</p>
<p>Another example could be seen in the recent immigration debate in Washington, when Trump gave the Senate the green light to vote on a spending bill – which they passed unanimously – only to go back and say he won’t support anything without more funding for a border wall.</p>
<p>Trump has hinted that he may be willing to accept a deal that sees China buy more US products and make some cosmetic changes that can be sold as &#8220;structural&#8221; reforms. It is anyone&#8217;s guess how he will react to the swift backlash such a deal would provoke.</p>
Chinese multinational conglomerate now holds approximately 203 million shares, or about 11%
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/alibaba-buys-into-sino-foreign-bank-cicc/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/alibaba-buys-into-sino-foreign-bank-cicc/<p class="p1">The Alibaba Group revealed that it has bought into China International Capital Corporation recently, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3007714">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Alibaba is now holding approximately 203 million shares of CICC Hong Kong, which accounts for 11.74% of the company&#8217;s Hong Kong shares and 4.84% of the total shares issued.</p>
<p class="p1">It is worth noting that another Internet giant, Tencent, is the second largest shareholder of the company. In September 2017, CICC announced that it intended to issue 207.5 million H shares to Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent, which accounted for 12.01% of CICC&#8217;s H shares and 4.95% of its total shares issued.</p>
<p class="p1">Central Huijin Investment is the largest shareholder of CICC, accounting for 55.68% of the shares. It is followed by Tencent, TPG Capital, GIC Private Limited and China National Investment &amp; Guaranty Corporation, which hold 4.95%, 4.1%, 3.77% and 3.04% of CICC&#8217;s total shares issued, respectively.</p>
<p class="p1">CICC is China&#8217;s first Sino-foreign joint venture investment bank, established in 1995. In 2015, it experienced a share restructuring and went public in Hong Kong in November same year.</p>
As provinces issue bonds at a larger scale and faster pace, infrastructure projects will gain support
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/february-local-bonds-could-reach-us44-39-bn/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/february-local-bonds-could-reach-us44-39-bn/<p class="p1">The issuance of February local government bonds will kick off today, and the total amount planned to be issued this month adds up to about 300 billion yuan (US$44.39 billion), <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2019-02-20/doc-ihqfskcp6740710.shtml">Securities Daily</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Local government bonds issued in January hit 417.97 billion yuan, while that in February will reach 295.86 billion yuan, according to documents disclosed in various provinces.</p>
<p class="p1">Analysts think as provinces are issuing local government bonds at a larger scale and at a faster pace, local infrastructure projects will gain stronger support.</p>
<p class="p1">This could play an important role in stabilizing investment and promoting consumption, and alleviate the downward pressure on economic growth in the short-term, the newspaper said.</p>
<p class="p1">It is also necessary to make good use of new local government bonds, including supporting projects under construction and to clean the arrears of government projects first, said He Lei, Deputy Director of the Budget Department at the Ministry of Finance.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, it is also urgent to start a batch of major projects in the areas of transportation, water conservancy and environmental protection.</p>
Central bank gets creative with a policy framework for perpetual bonds, launching a two-step process
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pboc-to-help-banks-replenish-capital/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pboc-to-help-banks-replenish-capital/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s central bank will work with relevant departments to further improve the policy framework for perpetual bonds, and promote banks to replenish capital through multiple channels, said Pan Dongsheng, deputy governor of the People&#8217;s Bank of China, <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2019-02-20/doc-ihqfskcp6752248.shtml">Securities Daily</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">In the next step, two policies are expected to be put forward to support banks issue bonds to replenish their capital.</p>
<p class="p1">First, the PBOC will consider encouraging banks to issue capital supplementary bonds to individual investors, allowing qualified and high net worth individual investors to invest. Long-term investments such as funds, annuities will also encouraged, Pan added.</p>
<p class="p1">Second, the PBOC will try to diversify the tools that banks can use for capital replenishment. For example, banks in other countries can issue convertible perpetual bonds.</p>
<p class="p1">This bond is a type that holders can convert into a specified number of shares of common stock in the issuing bank. The PBOC will study the possibility of launching such bonds, as well as secondary capital bonds.</p>
New campus resembles an architectural journey through the heart of Europe
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/back-to-the-past-for-huawei/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/back-to-the-past-for-huawei/<p><span class="s1">Huawei’s new ‘Ox Horn’ campus in Dongguan is raising eyebrows with its unconventional design. The massive campus will be composed of 12 clusters, each modeled after a European city. Areas that resemble locales such as Oxford, Paris, Venice and Granada will be the host of the Chinese tech giant’s efforts toward global industry dominance.</span></p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v2skGpgLUMo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
https://youtu.be/v2skGpgLUMo, 85
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/back-to-the-past-for-huawei-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/back-to-the-past-for-huawei-2/Chambers and passages designed to avoid arrest, police say; 39 arrested, dozens taken for drug tests
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/secret-passages-found-in-illegal-malaysian-bar/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/secret-passages-found-in-illegal-malaysian-bar/<p>Some 39 people were arrested and dozens more taken for drug tests after an illegal entertainment outlet, just two kilometers from a police station in Selangor, was raided by Malaysian authorities in the early hours of Sunday.</p>
<p>When officers from the Selangor Anti-Vice, Gaming and Secret Societies Division (D7) arrived at the karaoke outlet in the USJ19 area of Subang Jaya they found 29 women from China, Thailand and Vietnam who worked as &#8220;guest relations officers&#8221;, plus five local and five male Bangladeshi staff. All were arrested, the China Press reported.</p>
<p>Another 70 customers, who reportedly had impaired consciousness, were taken to the station for urine tests to see if they had taken illicit substances.</p>
<p>The karaoke outlet, they said, was found to have secret wardrobes, chambers and passages, all of which appeared to have been created so guests or staff could run away if police raided the bar.</p>
<p>Police said the premises&#8217; license had expired in 2017. Receipts, audio equipment and cash were seized as evidence.</p>
<p>Preliminary inquiries revealed that each woman was paid at least 140 ringgit, and it cost 400 ringgit (US$98) for a designated woman to serve customers for a whole night. Sexual services were allegedly possible when both parties consented.</p>
<p>It was estimated that daily revenue in the bar exceeded 50,000 ringgit (US$12,247).</p>
<p>At the time of the report, the Selangor police were investigating whether drugs were sold or supplied at the bar.</p>
The Modi government promised to come to farmers’ aid. Five years on, the reality tells a different story
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/is-indias-farming-sector-a-victim-of-scams/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/is-indias-farming-sector-a-victim-of-scams/<p>Severe debts, annual droughts, and suicides have plagued the Indian farming community. Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s party&#8217;s 2014 manifesto promised to boost the farming sector, but a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) shows farm distress has only worsened in the last four years.</p>
<p>Rising discontent resulted in 100,000 farmers <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/12/article/opposition-leaders-unite-against-indias-brewing-farm-crisis/?_=5244380" target="_blank" rel="noopener">marching</a> upon Parliament this year. The agrarian crisis in India, all too real and distressing, has been sustained by ruling parties&#8217; political agendas. P Sainath, the founding editor of the People&#8217;s Archive of Rural India (PARI), has been stressing that the Prime Minister’s ‘<em>Fasal Bima Yojana</em>’ (crop insurance scheme) has <a href="https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/how-much-will-farm-distress-hurt-bjp-and-modi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">benefited</a> private insurers more than the farmers.</p>
<p>The distress in the sector, which employs over half of the Indian workforce, will play a crucial role in deciding the people&#8217;s mandate in this year&#8217;s general election as Modi seeks a second term in office.</p>
<h4>Manifesto vs. reality</h4>
<p>Among other promises, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 2014 <a href="https://www.bjp.org/images/pdf_2014/full_manifesto_english_07.04.2014.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">election manifesto</a> insisted on reining in inflation by setting up a Price Stabilization Fund and evolving a single National Agriculture Market. However in reality, the Modi Government, with all its power, has been unable to ease farmers&#8217; suffering.</p>
<p>The National Commission on Farmers (NCF), <a href="https://www.prsindia.org/report-summaries/swaminathan-report-national-commission-farmers">constituted</a> in 2004 under the chairmanship of Professor MS Swaminathan. published its final report in 2006. It focused on farmer distress and the rise in farmer suicides and strongly recommended a holistic national policy. To extreme consternation, no such policy has been implemented.</p>
<p>The Land Holding Survey, <a href="http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/nss_rep_399.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Report No. 399</a> of the 48th National Sample Survey (NSS) shows that 11.24% of Indian households are landless. In 1991-92, the share of the bottom half of the rural households in the total land ownership was only 3% and the top 10% owned 54% of the land.</p>
<p>The BJP’s 2014 manifesto declared, similar to the Swaminathan Committee report: “(The) BJP will adopt a &#8216;National Land Use Policy&#8217;, which will look at the scientific acquisition of non-cultivable land, and its development; protect the interest of farmers and keep in mind the food production goals and economic goals of the country. Its implementation would be monitored by the National Land Use Authority, which will work with the State Land Use Authorities to regulate and facilitate land management.” However, after four years of BJP rule, it seems that the manifesto&#8217;s main goal was to attract voters by cashing in on anti-incumbency sentiment.</p>
<h4>Export-import disparities</h4>
<p>Data accessed by Asia Times, via RTI, shows that exports for sunflower seeds, safflower or cottonseed oil and their fractions thereof only amounted to US$4.67 million for the fiscal year 2017-18. Compare this to imports during the same period, US$1.84 billion. This is especially surprising when one considers that India&#8217;s rural spending is said to <a href="https://www.dhanbank.com/pdf/reports/InFocus-December%201,%202010.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">account</a> for 55% of total national monthly expenditure.</p>
<p>Last year the government <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/commodities/news/edible-oils-costly-but-no-benefit-for-farmers/articleshow/61719258.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposed</a> import duty on edible oils even while domestic farmers could not get even the minimum support price (MSP) for oilseeds because farm-gate prices remained 15-25% lower than the MSP. This was completely counter to the recommendations of the Swaminathan report which recommended that the MSP should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.</p>
<h4>CAG cover-up</h4>
<p>Given the current state of the agriculture industry, questions arise over the suppression of the 89-page performance <a href="https://cag.gov.in/content/report-no7-2017-performance-audit-union-government-agriculture-crop-insurance-schemes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit</a> by the CAG [Report No.7 of 2017] on ‘Union Government’s Agriculture Crop Insurance Schemes’.</p>
<p>The crop insurance schemes were framed to provide insurance cover to the farming community against yield losses. These schemes were to be implemented in the states through the IAs (AIC and private insurance companies) and Bank/FIs operating in the respective States.</p>
<p>The CAG <a href="https://cag.gov.in/sites/default/files/audit_report_files/Report_No.7_of_2017_-_Performance_audit_Union_Government_Agriculture_Crop_Insurance_Schemes_Reports_of_Agriculture_and_Farmers_Welfare.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Report</a>, observes that because of non-maintenance of the database of farmers, central and state governments were not in a position to ensure that 106 billion rupees released as premium subsidy reached the intended beneficiaries or achieved the intended purposes.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the auditor observes that the Rajasthan government, during the period of 2013-2016, issued notifications of crop insurance in selected districts in favor of different insurance companies. The condition was that the claims would be settled based on the crop area as reported. This was done despite knowing that the same does not include the &#8220;sowing failed down area&#8221; (area in which seeds do not grow for various reasons).</p>
<p>Due to the failure of crops in the four districts, the insurance companies, without the agreement of the state, reduced the sown areas of 389,000 farmers by 0.23 million hectares. This resulted in a loss of 312.7 million rupees to farmers&#8217; insurance claims. In addition, these farmers also suffered a loss of 86.8 million rupees on account of additional premiums paid for &#8220;sowing failed down area&#8221; without any insurance coverage as the premium amount paid by the farmers was not refunded.</p>
<h4>Audit Deficiencies</h4>
<p>Further scrutiny of records revealed that ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited obtained proposals from 21,875 non-loanee farmers in Rajasthan during Rabi (winter) season 2012-13 and collected premiums of 23.5 million rupees from the farmers. Subsequently, the Insurance Company rejected the proposal of 14,753 farmers due to the inadequacy of relevant documents and did not refund the premiums to these farmers. No action has been initiated by the state to get 14.6 million rupees in payments refunded to the affected farmers.</p>
<p>The implementing agencies are required to open a separate account for maintaining all transactions under the scheme. However, the audit noticed that the private insurance companies in Haryana and Maharashtra did not maintain any such accounts. The insurance companies stated (September 2016) that no such requirement was raised by state or central government.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the CAG report evoked NCIP guidelines, which stipulate that empaneled insurance companies are liable to be disqualified if their performance is found to be below par. But the audit found instances of inaction by the <a href="http://agricoop.nic.in/dacfw-organisation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DAC&amp;FW</a> despite sub-par performances by insurance companies. For example, in Rajasthan, the performance of HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Limited was declared by the state government to be below par for the last seven crop seasons up until the end of Kharif season 2014. However, the DAC&amp;FW has not acted on the recommendation of the state government to disqualify the insurance company.</p>
<p>The audit examination reveals the chilling financial impact of selecting the wrong insurance companies. The CAG also acknowledges that the replies by the Rajasthan government on the controversial evaluation of bids by insurance companies were unacceptable according to scheme guidelines. This illustrates how the vast funds involved have been decentralized and handled by the BJP at the state level so that the central government can maintain its clean image before the relevant authorities.</p>
<p>The CAG report concludes: “The integrity of the data provided by the state governments in this respect and used by AIC was not ensured. There were delays in the issue of notifications, receipt of declarations from Bank/FIs within cut-off dates, receipt of yield data from state governments, in the processing of claims by IAs, and irregularities in disbursement of claims by Bank/FIs to farmers’ accounts. There was no proper grievance redressal system and monitoring mechanism for speedy settlement of farmer’s complaints at GOI or state government levels.”</p>
<p>Even though huge funds under the schemes were provided to private insurance companies, the CAG expressed concern that there was no provision for the audit to ensure proper utilization of funds by these insurance companies. The CAG has only studied the impact of insurance schemes in a few selected states, and then for statistical audit scrutiny. Despite the selective data pool, the conclusion remains strong.</p>
<p>Though capping of premiums under the NCIP restricted the liability of governments under the schemes, the loanee farmers were deprived of the full benefits of insurance coverage they paid for. There was also a lack of awareness among the farmers as surveyed by the auditor.</p>
<p>Insurance companies appear to be exploiting the uneducated and uninformed farm laborers, and the plight of the Indian farmer has only been worsened by empty manifesto promises.</p>
Critics say AFC President Sheikh Salman’s conflicted role means he should step away from the game
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/red-card-for-asian-footballs-sheikh-leader/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/red-card-for-asian-footballs-sheikh-leader/<p>Hakeem Al-Araibi’s recent release from a Bangkok immigration prison may have ended the refugee footballer’s fear of being persecuted if deported to his home Bahrain, but when his plane touched down in Australia it did not bring the saga to an end.</p>
<p>The global controversy that swirled over Al-Araibi’s detention, based on an Interpol red alert issued for his arrest, has put a spotlight on Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa’s dual role as president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and a prominent member of Bahrain’s ruling royal family.</p>
<p>As Asian football’s leading official, Salman is tasked with looking after the interests of all players active within the athletic confederation, including a commitment to respect and promote players’ rights.</p>
<p>But those statues were openly compromised with Salman appearing to act more as a Bahraini royal than AFC president, as Bahrain pressed Thailand to deport Al-Araibi to Manama despite his United Nations-recognized status as a refugee in Australia.</p>
<p>Al-Araibi, who had fled to Australia in 2014, was given political asylum two years later. He has claimed he would be tortured, or worse, if returned to Bahrain. He had been outspoken in his criticism of Salman, accusing him of being involved in the arrest of athletes during Bahrain’s Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and 2012.</p>
<figure id="attachment_306793" style="width: 1530px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-306793" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Bahrain-Australia-Thailand-Hakeem-al-Araibi-Football-Refugee-Facebook-e1550301944646.jpg" alt="" width="1530" height="872" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Bahrain-Australia-Thailand-Hakeem-al-Araibi-Football-Refugee-Facebook-e1550301944646.jpg 1530w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Bahrain-Australia-Thailand-Hakeem-al-Araibi-Football-Refugee-Facebook-e1550301944646-768x438.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1530px) 100vw, 1530px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Bahraini football player Hakeem al-Araibi while being held in a Thai immigration detention facility. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>At the time, there were reports of more than 200 football players and other athletes who were arrested, interrogated, and, many claim, tortured after participating in anti-government protests. Salman, then president of the Bahrain Football Association, denies accusations that he helped identify the players to authorities.</p>
<p>Bahrain claims that Al-Araibi vandalized a police station during the tumult, charges he denies as he was on the field playing in a televised football game at the time of the incident. The player claims that he was tortured after his arrest; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia for the alleged crime after seeking asylum in Australia.</p>
<p>The process to extradite him to Bahrain began on November 27, when he was detained in Bangkok as he entered Thailand on honeymoon. Interpol had issued a red alert for his arrest but later withdrew the global arrest order when the controversy mounted.</p>
<p>Former Australian international footballer Craig Foster led an energetic and ultimately successful global campaign to bring Al-Araibi back to his adopted home in Melbourne, where he plays for semi-professional club Pascoe Vale.</p>
<p>Foster, who initially stood for election in 2018 to become chairman of the board of Football Federation Australia before withdrawing, believes that the football world should rethink its attitude and approach to its leaders after the Al-Araibi episode.</p>
<p>&#8220;This entire crisis in which a young man’s life was in jeopardy highlights the complete lack of implementation of a code of ethics or governance standards,” Foster, who visited the player in Bangkok and traveled to FIFA&#8217;s headquarters in Switzerland to urge the governing body to do more to facilitate the player’s release, told Asia Times.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312462" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312462" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ebrahim-Al-Khalifa-Arab-Spring-FIFA-2016-e1550302125598.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ebrahim-Al-Khalifa-Arab-Spring-FIFA-2016-e1550302125598.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ebrahim-Al-Khalifa-Arab-Spring-FIFA-2016-e1550302125598-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ebrahim-Al-Khalifa-Arab-Spring-FIFA-2016-e1550302125598-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters hold a banner depicting victims of Bahrain&#8217;s anti-regime protests against Bahrain&#8217;s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa at an extraordinary FIFA Congress in Zurich on February 26, 2016. Photo: AFP/Olivier Morin</figcaption></figure>
<p>“There are considerable and serious questions to be answered by both the current AFC president regarding his complicity in the 2011-12 crackdown on athletes and to his involvement in Hakeem’s incarceration and near refoulement to Bahrain,” he said.</p>
<p>The AFC was publicly silent for most of the 67 days that Al-Araibi was behind bars, only issuing a statement on January 29 when confederation Vice President Praful Patel called for the player’s release in response to the global furor. Al-Araibi was personally greeted by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison upon his release from Thailand and return to Australia, underscoring the incident&#8217;s high-level diplomatic fallout.</p>
<p>The AFC declared in January that Salman could not be involved in the case as he had recused himself from matters involving the AFC’s West Zone region to avoid accusations of conflicts of interest. But that did little to assuage his critics.</p>
<p>James Dorsey, an expert in Middle Eastern football politics and senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore&#8217;s Nanyang Technological University, said Salman taking himself out of the equation did little to answer questions that still surround his alleged role in repression during the Arab Spring.</p>
<p>“It does not reflect well on Sheikh Salman and his rejection of assertions that he was associated with the penalizing of athletes and sports executives allegedly involved in the 2011 popular protests in Bahrain,” said Dorsey.</p>
<p>Dorsey believes that these issues should have been examined before Salman became AFC president in 2013. “Sheikh Salman should have only been allowed to assume office once a thorough and independent investigation had cleared him.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_312463" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312463" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-FIFA-Asia-Football-Confederation-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ibrahim-Al-Khalifa-2016-e1550302278307.jpg" alt="" width="1588" height="992" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-FIFA-Asia-Football-Confederation-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ibrahim-Al-Khalifa-2016-e1550302278307.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-FIFA-Asia-Football-Confederation-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ibrahim-Al-Khalifa-2016-e1550302278307-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bahrain-FIFA-Asia-Football-Confederation-Sheikh-Salman-Bin-Ibrahim-Al-Khalifa-2016-e1550302278307-1568x980.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, then a candidate for FIFA President, addresses the audience during the Extraordinary FIFA Congress 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland, February 26, 2016. Photo: DPA via AFP Forum/Patrick Seeger</figcaption></figure>
<p>Foster and others want a new investigation into his background and they are leading calls that have been echoed by such figures as Professional Footballers Australia chief John Didulica for Salman to be barred from seeking re-election to the position on April 6.</p>
<p>“There is no way Salman can contemplate continuing to purport to be an authentic holder of high office in the game,” Foster said. “Football needs to decide how low the bar is to be set. And, in any event, Salman will still be unable to reach even the lowest threshold.”</p>
<p>Salman is also a senior vice president at FIFA and ran for its presidency in 2016, only to lose the election to Italy’s Gianni Infantino. It remains to be seen whether Salman will continue to enjoy the support of Asia’s federations when they gather to vote in April&#8217;s pivotal election.</p>
<p>Whether the Al-Araibi episode and the global outcry it elicited will motivate change in how the region’s football is governed and led is yet to be seen.</p>
<p>“It raises questions about figures with political connections, as well as members of ruling families, becoming executives of national, regional or global sports governance,” said Dorsey. “The case puts human rights center stage and marks a milestone in resisting efforts by autocratic regimes to unilaterally impose their will.”</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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The handsets assembler is rehiring workers laid off after Apple began cutting its production
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/huawei-orders-will-give-foxconn-a-lifeline/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/huawei-orders-will-give-foxconn-a-lifeline/<p>As Huawei struggles to keep a foothold in Western markets amid a barrage of security concerns, it is being hailed as a potential savior for handsets assembler Foxconn. Five months ago the Taiwanese firm began laying off 50,000 workers in China, but now they are being rehired.</p>
<p>Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Company in Taiwan, faced an uncertain future after American giant Apple said earlier this year it would be cutting output of iPhones by 10% in the three months to the end of March due to fallout from the US-China trade tensions. It is estimated that Apple provides half of all revenues for Foxconn, which is the world’s leading mobile phone assembler.</p>
<p>Then Huawei stepped in. In the past week Foxconn has started putting on 50,000 workers at Zhengzhou in China’s Henan province, and another 20,000 in Shenzhen in anticipation of a large order from the Chinese telecommunications group. It may have come just in time.</p>
<p>Foxconn confirmed to Reuters that most of the additional workers will be based at the company’s Zhengzhou plant, where 20 production lines are capable of producing 100,000 iPhones a day.</p>
<p>The hiring drive at the Shenzhen plant came after recruitment campaigns at Foxconn’s Hengyang and Taiyuan plants in Hunan Province and its Huai&#8217;an and Kunshan plants in Jiangsu provinces. New workers are being offered monthly pay ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 yuan (US$591 to US$739), with a probation period of only one month, local media reported.</p>
<p>International Data Corporation estimates that Huawei last year produced 206 million handsets, a 33.6% increase from the previous year, making it the only manufacturer among the top three worldwide to record higher volumes. Samsung’s output dropped 8% to 292 million units, while production by Apple fell 3.2% to 209 million units.</p>
<p>Huawei Consumer Business Group chief executive Richard Yu Chengdong said Huawei planned to produce 250 million handsets this year and 300 million in 2020, when he expects it will take over Samsung’s mantle as the top smartphone manufacturer worldwide.</p>
<p>Slower demand by Apple has not yet shown up in Foxconn accounts. Parent company Hon Hai reported record quarterly consolidated sales of NT$1.81 trillion (US$58.71 billion) in the final three months of 2018, while consolidated sales for the entire year reached NT$5.296 trillion (US$171.66 billion), which was also a new high.</p>
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Skeptical neighbors were convinced after they saw CCTV footage of the big cat
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/wild-leopard-seen-wandering-near-indian-airport/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/wild-leopard-seen-wandering-near-indian-airport/<p>A leopard that was spotted entering a house near an airport briefly caused panic among residents in Southern India.</p>
<p>Bankanidhi Senapati, a witness to the incident, said the leopard entered the compound of a house in Palaspalli, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, at around 11pm on February 17, <a href="https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/leopard-near-city-airport-triggers-panic.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Pioneer</a> reported. According to the witness, the leopard entered the area after it had scaled the boundary wall of the airport next to the house compound.</p>
<p>He added that he informed his neighbors only after the animal left the premises. Initially, they refused to believe him, until they were shown footage from a security camera.</p>
<p>The Forest Department dispatched a 25-member team to the location, and launched a search operation to try and locate the leopard in Palaspalli and Bhimatangi.</p>
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Many Bangladesh Nationalist Party members are in jail or on the run as the Sheikh Hasina govt continues its repression
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/zia-and-the-bnp-crushed-by-a-legal-avalanche/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/zia-and-the-bnp-crushed-by-a-legal-avalanche/<p>The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – one of the country&#8217;s biggest political parties – is enduring the worst days since its formation four decades ago, with its leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia languishing in jail for over a year.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/02/article/former-bangladesh-pm-khaleda-zia-found-guilty-graft-case/">Zia was found guilty of corruption</a> and sent to jail for five years on February 8 last year. Then in October, a court ruling on her appeal <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/court/2018/10/30/zia-orphanage-trust-graft-case-hc-raises-khaleda-s-jail-term-to-10yrs">doubled her jail term</a>. She has been serving her time in a jailhouse in the older part of the capital, which once housed the Dhaka Central Jail.</p>
<p>The 73-year-old politician had been its only prisoner for the last year as others detained in the jail were shifted to the city&#8217;s outskirts.</p>
<p>The former PM was convicted ahead of the December 2018 national election, with judges acting on longstanding cases against her. Verdicts were given in just two of a total of 37 cases she faces.</p>
<p>Zia&#8217;s son Tarique Rahman, the party&#8217;s second-in-command, has also been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/bangladesh-court-sentences-19-death-2004-attack-case-181009111251124.html">convicted</a> in two graft cases. A fugitive facing several arrest warrants, he has been living in London in self-exile since 2008.</p>
<h4>Just six seats</h4>
<p>Meanwhile, many independent observers have hailed the recent <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/12/article/hasina-wins-third-term-as-vote-rigging-claims-go-unanswered/?_=4954328">election outcome as “controversial”</a>. Zia’s center-right BNP secured just six seats out of 300 parliamentary constituencies, the worst possible result for a party that won power and ruled Bangladesh three times since the country’s independence in 1971.</p>
<p>In absence of Zia, BNP went into the election as part of an <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/10/article/an-unlikely-political-alliance-emerges-before-bangladeshi-election/?_=5549587">alliance named Jatyio Oikkya Front</a> (National Unity Front) led by Dr Kamal Hossain, a secular former foreign minister. But its alliance partner managed to secure just two seats beside the BNP’s six.</p>
<p>BNP’s arch-rival the Awami League and the grand alliance it led won a record 288 parliamentary seats. It has now formed a government under the leadership of Awami chief Sheikh Hasina, who has begun a third consecutive term.</p>
<p>However, the BNP has so far failed to reorganize following the massive defeat in the polls, which it describes as “farcical.” Its leaders and activists have been demoralized and there are no fresh protests to boost their morale.</p>
<p>To add to their woes, most of the party&#8217;s senior leaders have kept their heads down after the election, fearing harassment at the hands of the Awami League government.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Large-scale election rigging&#8217;</h4>
<p>Barrister Moudud Ahmed, a senior leader of the BNP, told Asia Times the party is still figuring out its next course of action after the “rigged” ballot outcome. “We all knew that the election wouldn’t have been fair, but we never imagined such large-scale election rigging from the Awami League.”</p>
<p>Ahmed, who was Law and Justice Minister during the BNP’s last time in office from 2001 to 2006, said many BNP leaders and activists were in jail or on the run, as the government had continued to repress its rivals.</p>
<p>The party has claimed that from September 1 to October 5 last year as many as 276,277 party activists and leaders were hit with fictitious charges – 4,149 in all – in an effort to keep BNP out of the national poll.</p>
<p>But it said this sort of harassment was not new. On October 6, at a press conference, BNP secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said around <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/politics/2018/10/06/fakhrul-over-2-5m-bnp-activists-implicated-in-false-cases-over-last-10-years">90,340 false cases had been filed</a> against more than 2.5 million people linked to the party since 2009, when the Awami League came to power.</p>
<p>“They [Awami League] have been using the judiciary to [hinder] a strong opposition,” said Ahmed, “[And] the biggest example of their use of the judiciary to do this is the jailing of our leader Khaleda Zia.”</p>
<p>Ahmed, the former law minister, said the party’s first priority was to try to get Zia released. “We have been trying legally to secure bail for her in all the cases,” he said.</p>
<h4>Zia: 19 cases pending</h4>
<p>Barrister Ehsanur Rahman, one of Zia&#8217;s lawyers, told Asia Times she is currently implicated in 37 cases on charges of corruption, killing people by setting motor vehicles on fire, creating anarchy, violence, sedition, and making defamatory statements.</p>
<p>Zia is serving 17 years from just two corruption cases — 10 years in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and seven years in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case. Of the remaining 35, 19 cases are pending with different courts, while 16 other matters are still being investigated, Rahman said.</p>
<p>“Madam [Khaleda Zia] would have been free, had the law been allowed to take its own course. But the problem is almost all the cases are politically motivated and were lodged to harass her politically,” he said.</p>
<h4>Lord Carlile: &#8216;A travesty&#8217;</h4>
<p>In March last year, the BNP <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/04/article/bangladeshi-politics-mess-ahead-poll-december/?_=3455696">appointed British lawyer</a> Lord Alex Carlile to boost the party&#8217;s legal team and highlight Zia’s case around the world.</p>
<p>However, the Sheikh Hasina government remained “silent” in reply to Carlile’s bid to get a visa. Later, the British lawyer went to Delhi to address a media briefing about what the party says are “baseless allegations” against Zia. After, he was <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/politics/2018/07/09/lord-carlile-denied-visa-india">denied entry</a> to the Indian capital as well.</p>
<p>Speaking with Asia Times from London, Lord Carlile said: “I was neither granted nor refused a visa to Bangladesh. They [Bangladesh government] went silent. [Then] I was bizarrely refused entry to India on the grounds that my presence in Delhi would damage India-BD [Bangladesh] relations.”</p>
<p>Asked if he believed Khaleda Zia was sent to jail for political reasons, notably because last year was an election year in Bangladesh, he replied: “I do believe that – strongly. They wished effectively to destroy the opposition.”</p>
<p>He also said: “I believe she [Zia] is not getting justice at all. The trial and other proceedings are a travesty of correct criminal procedure.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch said in a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/12/22/creating-panic/bangladesh-election-crackdown-political-opponents-and-critics#">recent report</a> while it took no position on the merit of the cases, &#8220;Zia’s supporters point out that the corruption cases were filed by the same 2007-2008 military-backed government that also filed corruption cases against the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. After her Awami League came to office in 2009, all cases against Hasina were dropped.”</p>
Military regime has prioritized infrastructure over welfare, a long-term emphasis that may cost it at the March 24 ballot box
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/thai-junta-oversees-a-strong-but-unequal-economy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/thai-junta-oversees-a-strong-but-unequal-economy/<p>After nearly five years of military rule, Thailand’s economic fundamentals are strong across the board. Whether that translates into votes for the ruling junta’s proxy Palang Pracharat party at March 24 elections, however, isn’t yet clear.</p>
<p>The Thai baht is Asia’s top performer this year, appreciating 4% against the dollar at a time other regional currencies have wobbled against various economic headwinds, including the US-China trade war.</p>
<p>In 2018, Thailand recorded a current account surplus of 7.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), equal to US$37 billion, piled up foreign reserves of $202 billion and notched economic growth of 4.1%, according to the National Economic and Development Council’s (NESDC).</p>
<p>The national planning agency forecasts national GDP will grow anywhere between 3.5-4.5% growth in 2019.</p>
<p>Exports contributed $23 billion to the current account surplus while tourism earnings contributed another $14 billion, thanks to the arrival of some 32.3 million foreign visitors in 2018, up 7.5% year on year and earning the country $64.3 billion, a rise of 9.5% on 2017.</p>
<p>Private consumption and investment also showed signs of a revival in the fourth quarter of 2018, rising 5.3% and 5.5% respectively, after five previous years of relative sluggishness. Analysts say the junta’s economic management deserves some of the credit for the bounce.</p>
<p>“The economy is picking up a bit,” said Charl Kengchn, managing director of Kasikorn Research Center (KRC) in Bangkok. “Consumption spending was up in the fourth quarter, especially on automobiles, and the election will boost consumption as the political parties canvass and spend cash, but only in the short term.”</p>
<p>Campaign spending for the upcoming general election, the first the country has held since 2011, is one economic upside analysts expect from the return to democracy after almost five years of strict military rule.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s economic team has done well to boost public spending on much-needed infrastructure, but less so at attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and boosting poor and middle class incomes, analysts say.</p>
<figure id="attachment_136226" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-136226" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Thailand-Prayuth-Chan-ocha-Construction-December-14-2015-e1550569979115.jpg" alt="Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha (center) observing a construction project in Bangkok in a 2015 file photo. Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha " width="1600" height="1068" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha (C) observing a construction project in 2015. Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha</figcaption></figure>
<p>When Prayut seized power in 2014, bringing a lull to a decade of political turmoil marred by revolving and often violent street protests, Thailand’s export-led, FDI-fueled economic growth was beginning to flounder.</p>
<p>The kingdom’s labor force was no longer abundant nor cheap, especially compared with its up-and-coming neighbor rivals in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Traditional export leaders, namely automobiles, electronics and electrical appliances, meanwhile had all failed to substantially climb the value chain.</p>
<p>In response, the regime launched a massive infrastructure-building spree, allocating 2.45 trillion baht ($78 billion) between 2014-2018 for improvements to the country’s railway system, extensions of Bangkok’s mass transit network and three new motorways outside of the capital, according to NESDC.</p>
<p>The infrastructure building was launched in part to stimulate growth and enhance competitiveness, but more importantly aimed to attract new FDI.</p>
<p>“With all the infrastructure building we are saying to the world that we want your investments,” KRC’s Charl noted. “Infrastructure is an important way of attracting FDI and multinational companies to Thailand.”</p>
<p>Bureaucratic efforts have also gone towards amending laws and regulations to improve the investment climate, boosting Thailand’s standing on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index to 26th place in 2017, up from 48th place in 2016.</p>
<p>Last year, the kingdom fell a notch to 27th place, although this was due more to faster progress in some of the other 190 economies surveyed in the annual index than perceived new hurdles in Thailand.</p>
<p>Prayut’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), an ambitious $44 billion scheme to transform the country’s three eastern coastal provinces into a special economic zone for value-added industries in 12 different sectors &#8211; including new generation automobiles and aviation &#8211; aims for new export and employment opportunities.</p>
<figure id="attachment_237343" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-237343" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Thailand-Bangkok-Skytrain-Condominiums-Property-iStock.jpg" alt="Property developments emerge along Bangkok's Skytrain mass transit system. Photo: iStock/Getty Images" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Thailand-Bangkok-Skytrain-Condominiums-Property-iStock.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Thailand-Bangkok-Skytrain-Condominiums-Property-iStock-580x387.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Bangkok&#8217;s Skytrain mass transit system. Photo: iStock/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>The EEC, which builds on the former Eastern Seaboard development scheme in the same three provinces launched by another general-cum-premier Prem Tinsulanonda during his 1980-1988 tenure, was first introduced in March 2017, or nearly three years into Prayut’s coup-installed term.</p>
<p>Cognizant of concerns that whatever the junta initiated could be overturned by a new elected government, Prayut used his special powers under the constitution’s Article 44 to pass the EEC Act in May 2018, giving the scheme a legal framework to ensure its continuity.</p>
<p>The EEC is included in the regime&#8217;s 20-year master plan for the economy, which new governments will, at least in principle, be legally bound to follow.</p>
<p>Some key EEC infrastructure projects, such as a high-speed train link connecting three regional airports, have also been expedited to get the construction contracts signed before the election and transition to a new government, expected to be installed by mid-year.</p>
<p>There are certain early signs of the EEC’s success. In 2018, Thai and foreign applications for Board of Investment (BOI) tax incentives hit 902 billion baht ($28.7 billion), up 43% year-on-year, of which 683.9 billion baht were for EEC targeted industries.</p>
<p>“The EEC is already happening and after the election it will be faster,” predicted Prinn Panichpakdi, chief executive officer of CSLA Securities Thailand.</p>
<p>“Incrementally you are going to see more FDI coming to Thailand over the next three to five years than we had under military government,” Prinn predicted, basing his optimism on an EEC take-off. “I think an elected government will lend some legitimacy when investors come to sign a full, long-term contract because investing in the EEC is not for five to ten years; it is for 15-20 years and upwards.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_187090" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-187090" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Thailand-U-Tapao-Airport-Passenger-Terminal-2017-iStock.jpg" alt="Thailand, Rayong March 20, 2017 Airport New Passenger Terminal at U-Tapao International Airport." width="1600" height="1089" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Thailand-U-Tapao-Airport-Passenger-Terminal-2017-iStock.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Thailand-U-Tapao-Airport-Passenger-Terminal-2017-iStock-580x395.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A new airport passenger terminal at U-Tapao International Airport in Thailand&#8217;s eastern Rayong province. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>To what extent the EEC is implemented as currently envisioned hinges on the election’s result.</p>
<p>If the opposition Peau Thai Party, affiliated with ex-prime ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, both ousted by military coups respectively in 2006 and 2014, and its allies win a majority in the Lower House, they could seek to hinder or slow the scheme’s progress.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the military-backed Palang Pracharat Party and its potential coalition partner the Democrat Party muster a majority, the EEC is expected to progress as currently planned.</p>
<p>If so, analysts say it will take a few years before its high-tech, value-added sectors start to improve Thailand’s export performance. “In the future I am hopeful you will be seeing more Thai export products counting on their quality and not just their foreign exchange and cheap-labor advantage,” Prinn said.</p>
<p>Either way, there are various economic challenges ahead for the kingdom’s next government. Those include perhaps most significantly a potential slowdown in exports, which currently contribute around 70% of GDP.</p>
<p>In the short-term, Thailand’s exports are not expected to maintain the 7.7% growth clip they hit in 2018. Exports expanded by only 2.3% in the final quarter of last year, dragged down by a global slowdown, a strong baht and uncertainty over the US-China trade war.</p>
<p>NESDC estimates export growth will not exceed 4% in 2019. Trade war tensions have adversely hit Thailand’s exports to China more than to the US, NESDC’s data shows.</p>
<p>“Exports to the US increased by 6.7% [in the fourth quarter], improving from a 0.01% contraction in the previous quarter, supported by the US economic expansion and the positive impacts from the US trade protection measures against China,” said the NESDC. Thailand’s exports to Japan and Southeast Asia were also up in the fourth quarter, while exports to China fell by 4.6% quarter-on-quarter.</p>
<p>With the US Federal Reserve unlikely to hike interest rates further this year, and FDI starting to flow back to Thailand, the baht could continue to strengthen vis-a-vis the dollar, making Thailand’s exports even less competitive, some analysts warn.</p>
<figure id="attachment_116601" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-116601 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Thailand-Prayuth-Rice-2016-e1550570332136.jpg" alt="Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha speaks during an announcement the junta's two year accomplishments at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha - RTSNT3V" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Thailand-Prayuth-Rice-2016-e1550570332136.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Thailand-Prayuth-Rice-2016-e1550570332136-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Thailand-Prayuth-Rice-2016-e1550570332136-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announces his junta&#8217;s two year accomplishments at Government House in Bangkok, September 15, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha</figcaption></figure>
<p>Significantly, Thailand’s agricultural sector, which employs 40% of the work force, has fared poorly under Prayut, partly due to a global fall in commodity prices, but also exacerbated by the junta’s moves to scrap Peua Thai’s populist policies, including a rice paddy pledging scheme that paid farmers prices well above market rates for their crops.</p>
<p>While the Palang Pracharat Party is campaigning on a welfare card scheme it aims to expand if elected, it’s not clear the policy will have the same resonance at the ballot box as Peau Thai’s past populist pledges.</p>
<p>Income inequality has reportedly increased under junta rule, earning Thailand the dubious distinction as the world’s most unequal society, according to research released by Credit Suisse, an investment bank.</p>
<p>On March 24, Prayut may wish he had spent more time tackling inequality than building infrastructure, some suggest.</p>
<p>&#8220;They should have looked in to the issue of inequality more seriously, especially the disparity between the superrich and the middle income people,&#8221; said Somchai Jitsuchon, research director for inclusive development at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), a Bangkok-based think tank.</p>
Tony Leung Ka-fai treats the maid, now recovering from cervical cancer, as a member of his family
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/actors-family-praised-for-helping-sick-maid/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/actors-family-praised-for-helping-sick-maid/<p>Popular Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai and his family have been praised for the compassion they have shown toward their domestic worker as she recovers from a battle with cervical cancer, with social media users describing them as an inspiration for other employers.</p>
<p>Delia, who has been with the Leung family for 30 years, was diagnosed with stage II cervical cancer three months ago but has now beaten the illness, Sky Post reported. Chloe and Nikkie, the 21-year-old twin daughters of Leung, posted photos on social media of the family with their maid.</p>
<p>“My rock, my family, my daddy’s good friend, my beautiful jie jie (sister) Delia is officially cancer free,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BuAgGTbhti3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nikkie posted on Instagram</a>. She said her parents had driven them to Queen Mary Hospital every day to visit Delia while she was undergoing the treatment.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BuAdliLlG6j/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chloe</a> praised Delia’s strong and positive attitude and said she always had a big smile during her three-month ordeal.</p>
<p>Leung, a four-time winner of the Best Actor gong at the Hong Kong Film Awards, said he treated the domestic worker as part of his family. He said the family appreciated what the doctor and medical personnel at the hospital had done for Delia.</p>
<p>Online viewers praised the Leungs as a caring family and said they had set a high standard for other employers.</p>
Three billion trips expected prior to and during this year’s Lunar New Year break
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/new-technology-to-ease-chinas-seasonal-spring-rush/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/new-technology-to-ease-chinas-seasonal-spring-rush/<p>Facial and voice recognition, robots, augmented reality navigation and other novel technologies are tapped to come into operation for safety and crowd control, when some three billion trips are made in China prior to and during this year&#8217;s Lunar New Year break, which begins on February 5.</p>
<p>Stations and airports throughout the nation typically struggle with the sudden spike in passenger numbers during the annual Spring Festival travel rush, also known as &#8220;chunyun&#8221;.</p>
<p>Xinhua news agency has reported that China Railway Corp has launched a trial scheme to deploy robots as well as a turn-by-turn augmented reality (AR) app at major national transport nodes. These include Guangzhou&#8217;s South Railway Station, Shanghai&#8217;s Hongqiao Railway Station and Shenzhen&#8217;s North Railway Station, where the new technology is there to help passengers navigate inside the massive railway hubs to their desired platforms for boarding.</p>
<p>Facial recognition and ID card readers have replaced manual ticket inspection at more stations this year: passengers only need to swipe their tickets and ID cards on a scanner for access to platforms, and it takes just two to ten seconds to go through the turnstiles.</p>
<figure id="attachment_305145" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-305145" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/800px-Shenzhen_North_Railway_Station_Concourse_2016_Chunyun.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/800px-Shenzhen_North_Railway_Station_Concourse_2016_Chunyun.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/800px-Shenzhen_North_Railway_Station_Concourse_2016_Chunyun-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Throngs of passengers are seen inside the main concourse of Shenzhen’s North Railway Station during “chunyun”. Photo: Baycrest/WikiMedia</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_305146" style="width: 900px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-305146" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/39n7-fykcppy0308370.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="634" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/39n7-fykcppy0308370.jpg 900w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/39n7-fykcppy0308370-768x541.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A passenger goes through a gate installed with a facial recognition system at Wuhan Railway Station in central China. Photo: Xinhua</figcaption></figure>
<div class="mceTemp"></div>
<p><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TE6e44zEJqs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em>Scenes from 40 years of China&#8217;s annual &#8220;chunyun&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Long queues inside ticketing halls are but a memory, now that buying tickets means a few taps on your smartphone, with payments made via WeChat pay and Alipay using your fingerprint or even face to establish your identity. Even the hated, formerly ever-present ticket scalpers are no more.</p>
<p>Some stations now support QR code-based e-tickets to save time and trees.</p>
<p>At Beijing’s airport, facial recognition software provided by Baidu has been in place since 2018 to help passengers reach their flights more quickly.</p>
<p>Everyone is safe but under scrutiny as they travel on China&#8217;s bullet trains on the nation&#8217;s sprawling 29,000 kilometers of high-speed rail routes. The same goes for the nation&#8217;s growing passenger jet fleet, all equipped with high-definition CCTV cameras.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-305147" style="font-family: NonBreakingSpaceOverride, 'Hoefler Text', 'Baskerville Old Face', Garamond, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px;" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/v2-0904f93361cda20d4a0218f212d53aae_r.jpg" alt="" width="558" height="222" /></p>
<p>One of China Railway Corp’s train operation central centers. Photos: Handout, WeChat<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-305148" style="font-family: abril-text, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 17px; color: #111111;" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7183e479ly1fjtros3zo5j21kw109b2b.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1305" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7183e479ly1fjtros3zo5j21kw109b2b.jpg 2048w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7183e479ly1fjtros3zo5j21kw109b2b-768x489.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7183e479ly1fjtros3zo5j21kw109b2b-1568x999.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" /></p>
<p>Citing a cadre with China Railway Corp, People&#8217;s Daily even brags that the rail operator&#8217;s NASA-like control and coordination center in Beijing can monitor almost each and every train in motion throughout the country with realtime data including speed and route. A train conductor at the marshaling center can even call a driver via the network&#8217;s tailor-made communications system.</p>
<p>Uber-like Chinese carpooling and car renting apps will take care of the last past of your journey, from major stations to your home. Nowadays even such localized transportation depends upon powerful big data and data crunching algorithms to dispatch drivers and cars according to train schedules and realtime passenger flows, thanks to data sharing deals inked with railway operators.</p>
The pair were seen fighting near Paya Lebar MRT station in Singapore
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/two-women-brawl-in-public-over-man/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/two-women-brawl-in-public-over-man/<p>A 20-second <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allsgstuff/posts/2881645935309450" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> showing two women, thought to be migrant workers, fighting in public near a Singapore MRT station on Sunday has gone viral. The women were allegedly fighting over a man.</p>
<p>The video appeared on Facebook on February 17, and clearly showed two women brawling, surrounded by friends who were trying to separate them, The Lianhe Wanbao (Singapore) reported.</p>
<p>The video came to an end when one of the fighters&#8217; friends saw a man filming, and signaled him to stop. By that time the fight had attracted a crowd of more than a dozen passers-by.</p>
<p>According to one of the comments left on Facebook, the two women were quarreling over a man whom they both considered as their boyfriend.</p>
<p>Fighting in public in Singapore, it is a violation under section 267A of the Penal Code, and offenders could be sentenced to up to one year in jail or a fine up to S$5,000 (US$3,680), or both.</p>
Omar’s tweet was quickly condemned by figures across the political spectrum
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ilhan-omars-tweet-and-the-democratic-primaries/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ilhan-omars-tweet-and-the-democratic-primaries/<p>The Democratic Party is developing an Israel problem. The latest mini-crisis occurred when Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota&#8217;s Fifth Congressional District tweeted that support for Israel in Congress was a product of the financial influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC is the major lobbying group advocating pro-Israel policies in the United States and consists of a primarily Jewish membership.</p>
<p>One traditional anti-Semitic trope refers to a vast Jewish financial conspiracy to achieve nefarious outcomes. By channeling this narrative, Representative Omar brought condemnation on herself from many sources on the left and right. The tweet&#8217;s effect was compounded by an equally problematic one in 2012, declaring that “hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evildoings of Israel.” Omar has also in the past been in trouble for posting allegedly homophobic tweets besmirching Senator Lindsey Graham.</p>
<p>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other figures in the Democratic establishment urged Omar to <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1095026564503343104">apologize</a>. The Trump administration piled in, with both President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence calling on Omar to resign. Although the Minnesota congresswoman apologized, she has reportedly used the incident to raise funds from her supporters.</p>
<p>Attacks on Omar provoked a backlash from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Her defenders have noted correctly that the “Israel lobby” has significant influence over American policy and therefore Omar’s point was in essence correct. For example, Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, asked, &#8220;So we’re just gonna pretend Sheldon Adelson [major conservative donor to pro-Israeli causes] <a href="https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/1094808219585859592">doesn’t exist</a>?” Some progressive Jews also voiced support for what they saw as legitimate criticism of AIPAC’s undue influence on Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>Some voices on the left have gone further and argued that identifying AIPAC and its agenda with the American Jewish community is inherently anti-Semitic. In a recent op-ed for The Washington Post, Mairav Zonszein wrote that “pretending that Israel is the major concern for all Jews – and that anyone who criticizes its policies is engaging in anti-Semitism – is itself a form of scapegoating, a classic anti-Semitic trope.” Indeed, the Jewish community does not have a monolithic approach toward Israel and many of its most virulent supporters are non-Jews.</p>
<p>A second criticism was that attacks on Representative Omar were motivated by her race and religion. The freshman member of Congress is a woman of color of Somali descent. As one of the two first Muslim women, and the first naturalized African citizen, to be elected, she is rightfully seen as a trailblazer and role model. Nylah Burton, a notable black Jewish commentator, wrote, “The subsequent tidal wave of backlash directed at Omar has made it clear that this particular racist tactic – excessive criticism and censuring of a person of color who advocates for Palestinian rights, on the grounds of anti-Semitism – has become a <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/essay/bad-faith/">tried-and-true weapon of the right</a>.”</p>
<p>Attacks on Omar fit into a disturbing pattern of people of color facing backlashes from pro-Israeli forces for taking pro-Palestinian stances. Recent scraps over statements made by Alice Walker, Tamika Mallory, Marc Lamont Hill and Angela Davis were similar. Some of these attacks were more justified than others, but the overall picture of Jewish activists concerned about anti-Semitism pitted against black activists concerned about Israeli human-rights violations has repeated itself.</p>
<p>This is a serious problem for the Democratic Party as both constituencies are essential parts of its voting coalition. Some 70% of American Jews faithfully vote Democrat, making them a central part of the party&#8217;s constituency. Traditionally, most of these voters (and important donors) held solidly pro-Israeli views and the Democratic establishment followed suit.</p>
<p>Black voters have also long been an integral part of the party coalition. According to one estimate, blacks have voted for the Democratic presidential candidate 87% of the time since the 1970s. In addition, black women (who are disproportionately involved in these disputes) are now the most reliable Democrat voters. Just as important, there is an increasingly significant number of non-black voters of the Democratic progressive wing (including a large number of Jews) who view politics through the prism of identity politics. They tend to view all criticism levied at a person of color as racially motivated.</p>
<p>The constant sparring over issues related to Israel and anti-Semitism have placed the Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination in a bind. Therefore, it is not surprising that none of the candidates spoke out on the controversy surrounding Omar’s tweets.</p>
<p>This is part of an established pattern of behavior. Candidates by and large approach the issue by placing themselves between the two camps. Early frontrunner Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California, has been an outspoken supporter of the Jewish state throughout her career. In 2017, she spoke proudly at an AIPAC summit. However, in 2018 she insisted on an “off record” speech that was not acknowledged by her campaign. Presidential hopefuls Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker skipped the conference completely. This is a stark contrast with the past when luminaries such as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden served as keynote speakers.</p>
<p>The Democratic hopefuls have also tried to showcase a moderate approach to Israel in Congress. This month, the Senate passed a bill protecting the right of state governments to refuse to do business with companies that boycott Israel. The bill was highly problematic in that it was perceived as impinging upon the free-speech rights of proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. In the past, Democratic lawmakers would almost automatically vote for any bill promoted by AIPAC. However, opposition to BDS can no longer be taken for granted in the Democratic Party. Omar and Rashida Tlaib, a representative from Michigan, both support it. Taking the middle ground, Elizabeth Warren, Gillibrand, Booker, Harris, Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown all voted against the bill.</p>
<p>The senators tried to avoid taking a strong position against Israel by explaining that while they opposed BDS, they did not support the stifling of free speech. The outlier is Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who both agreed to give a public AIPAC speech and voted for the anti-BDS legislation.</p>
<p>The fact that only one candidate is banking on a traditional pro-Israel policy is telling. The Democratic establishment continues to back Israel. But candidates know that the future of the party will be more pro-Palestinian and are adjusting their stances accordingly. A recent poll found that while Democrats over the age of 65 favor Israel over the Palestinians by 12 points, Democrats under 34 favor the Palestinians by 11 points. Young American Jews are also less sympathetic to Israel than previous generations.</p>
<p>Omar and Rashida Tlaib and their high-profile ally Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represent the future of the Democratic Party in more ways than one. They are younger, ethnically diverse, more progressive and anti-Israel. A future in which the Democrats are hostile to Israel while the Republicans embrace it may be closer than ever.</p>
Institutional involvement, technical upgrades and positive US government noises have seen digital markets soar
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/crypto-markets-surge-up-20-in-february/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/crypto-markets-surge-up-20-in-february/<p>Digital currency markets, after being depressed and in a downward trend since their all-time highs of January 2018, have rallied in the last two weeks.</p>
<p>Whether it is coincidental that the US government has &#8220;reopened for business,&#8221; or a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bet-on-trump-to-fold-in-china-trade-talks/">prolonged trade standoff</a> between the Trump administration and China has failed to find a resolution, $20 billion has been pumped back into crypto asset markets since the start of February.</p>
<p>Over the past two weeks total market capitalization for the entire digital coin industry climbed over 20 percent and, during Tuesday’s Asian trading session, markets hit a high of $134 billion, marking their best performance in almost six weeks. More significantly, daily trading volumes have reached their highest levels for almost nine months. According to market analytics website <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/">Coinmarketcap.com</a>, daily trade volume was over $34 billion on Tuesday, higher that it has been since early May 2018.</p>
<p>Bitcoin has traditionally been the bellwether for market sentiment with most other virtual assets following its movements. This rally has been slightly different, however, as it is being catalyzed by two decentralized application (dApp) platforms, Ethereum and EOS.</p>
<p>Since the weekend Ethereum has gained over 20% and EOS, the world’s fourth largest crypto token, is up almost 30%. Litecoin has also performed well in recent weeks and is up over 100% since the big market dip in mid-December.</p>
<p>The driving momentum for Ethereum could be a much-delayed technical network upgrade, which will usher in a number of improvements for transaction cost and efficiency. The upgrade is now reportedly due at the end of the month.</p>
<p>Major US institutional involvement is expected in 2019 especially if the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the NYSE, and multinational financial services corporation Fidelity bring crypto products to market. JP Morgan’s foray into the industry with its <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/jp-morgans-payment-platform-will-test-ripple/">own private and centralized stablecoin</a> will have also raised general industry awareness.</p>
<p>In general, long term technical analysis is still bearish, with many prominent industry observers predicting more pain ahead for crypto markets before any real and prolonged recovery can be measured. However, with markets jumping 20% in less than a fortnight, there is undoubtedly renewed hope for all those holding digital assets.</p>
The billionaire founder accuses Washington of unacceptable involvement in the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ren-slams-us-for-politically-motivated-attack-on-huawei/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ren-slams-us-for-politically-motivated-attack-on-huawei/<p class="p1">Billionaire businessman Ren Zhengfei was in no mood to sugarcoat his comments.</p>
<p class="p1">During a lengthy interview, the founder of Huawei made it crystal clear that the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou was “politically motivated” in a move to “crush” the company he created.</p>
<p class="p1">“Firstly, I object to what the US has done. This kind of politically motivated act is not acceptable,” he said. &#8220;The US likes to sanction others, whenever there&#8217;s an issue, they&#8217;ll use such combative methods.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We object to this. But now that we&#8217;ve gone down this path, we&#8217;ll let the courts settle it,” he added in a BBC interview.</p>
<p class="p1">Meng, who is also the chief financial officer of Huawei, has since been released on US$7.5-million bail after being arrested in the Canadian city of Vancouver on December 1.</p>
<p class="p1">But she still faces the prospect of being extradited to the United States.</p>
<p class="p1">Last month, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/video/acting-attorney-general-whitaker-announces-national-security-related-criminal-charges">US Justice Department</a> announced sweeping charges against the telecom giant, including bank fraud, obstruction of justice and technology theft.</p>
<p class="p1">Key accusations revolve around violations of US sanctions on Iran, an allegation that has also been leveled against Meng, which she has denied.</p>
<p class="p1">“[The] charges expose Huawei&#8217;s brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace,&#8221; Christopher Wray, the director of the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/chinese-telecom-firm-huawei-indicted-012819">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a>, said at the end of January.</p>
<p class="p1">Naturally, these claims have been dismissed by Ren, who launched the high-tech infrastructure and smartphone group back in 1987 with 21,000 yuan (then US$4,400) of his own money.</p>
<h4>Media recluse</h4>
<p class="p1">Considered a media recluse, he even broke his protocol for privacy last month to discuss the controversy swirling around Huawei, which has become entangled in the trade war between China and the US.</p>
<p class="p1">“[I have] never received any request from any government to provide improper information,” Ren <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-china-huawei-founder/huawei-founder-says-firm-does-not-spy-for-china-idUKKCN1P9180">told the Western media</a> in the coastal export hub of Shenzhen.</p>
<p class="p1">“I still love my country, I support the Communist Party, but I will never do anything to harm any country in the world,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1">Technology has become a key battleground in the rivalry between the world’s two largest economies and Huawei has been caught in the crossfire as the poster child of the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/07/article/welcome-to-this-brave-new-world-with-chinese-characteristics/?_=9934096">“Made in China 2025” plan</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">Apart from the Meng incident, another executive was arrested in Poland on espionage charges in January. But authorities revealed that the investigation was limited to employee Wang Weijing, who has since been fired, and not the company.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-QCZ61ru4s" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">To add to the spate of negative news for Huawei, <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/huawei-starts-stacking-chips-in-global-game-of-technology-roulette/">there has been intense scrutiny</a> about cybersecurity and perceived links to Beijing’s central government. US allies such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United Kingdom are even considering restricting market access.</p>
<p class="p1">Again, these allegations have been denied by the group.</p>
<p class="p1">“The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced. Even if they [US] persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always scale things down a bit,” Ren told the BBC.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;If the lights go out in the West, the East will still shine. And if the North goes dark, there is still the South. America doesn&#8217;t represent the world. America only represents a portion of the world,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1">Before his interview was aired, <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/">China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs</a> waded into the row after US Vice-President Mike Pence warned about the security concerns posed by Huawei at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week.</p>
<h4>Claims denied</h4>
<p class="p1">On Monday, Geng Shuang, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, denied claims that Beijing had ordered companies to violate international laws when working overseas by building <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-02/18/c_137831774.htm">&#8220;mandatory back doors&#8221;</a> to collect data, information and intelligence.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;The United States and a few of its allies are using double standards and deliberately misleading the public on the issue,” Geng said. “They use the issue as an excuse for suppressing the legitimate development rights and interests of Chinese enterprises … using political means to intervene in economic behaviors. It&#8217;s hypocritical, immoral and unfair bullying behaviors.”</p>
<p class="p1">Still, accusations persist about Huawei’s close connections to <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/huawei-spy-threat-can-be-contained-in-the-uk/?_=4453469">Xi Jinping’s government</a> and the lack of online freedom in the world’s second-largest economy.</p>
<p class="p1">Major foreign companies also feel they are being shut out of China’s tech sector by draconian regulations and forced technology transfers.</p>
<p class="p1">Indeed, these allegations have been raised by the US delegation during successive rounds of trade talks, which are due to resume in Washington this week, as well as other core issues in the long-running dispute.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;The Made in China 2025 initiative, has caused deep resentment among American companies and their counterparts elsewhere,” Cheng Li, the director of the John L. Thornton China Center, and Diana Liang, a research assistant at the center, wrote on <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/washingtons-search-for-a-new-paradigm-on-china/">the Brookings Institution website</a>, in November.</p>
<p class="p1">“They have called these practices ‘state capitalism,’ in opposition to fair market competition,” they added.</p>
<p class="p1">Specializing in digital infrastructure, the rollout of 5G across countries involved in the grandiose Belt and Road Initiative was seen as a golden opportunity for Huawei.</p>
<p class="p1">Now, it looks like a potential minefield.</p>
<p class="p1">These ‘New Silk Road’ superhighways will connect China with 68 nations and 4.4 billion people across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe in a maze of multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure projects, including a web of digital links.</p>
<p class="p1">“Do we have to be worried about Huawei and other Chinese companies? Yes, I think we have to be worried,” Andrus Ansip, <a href="https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en">the European Union’s</a> vice-president for a digital single market, said when asked about cybersecurity.</p>
<p class="p1">For Ren, as he keeps reiterating, this not a problem but a figment of the West’s imagination.</p>
Implementation and enforcement will be two key elements as the clock ticks to March 1 deadline
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-china-trade-talks-reach-a-critical-stage/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-china-trade-talks-reach-a-critical-stage/<p class="p1">Vice-Premier Liu He is heading back to Washington for another round of trade talks which will take place on Thursday and Friday.</p>
<p class="p1">The dates were confirmed by China’s official <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/">Xinhua news agency</a>, quoting a short statement from the Ministry of Commerce.</p>
<p class="p1">“Liu will meet US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer,” the ministry confirmed without giving further details.</p>
<p class="p1">In a separate statement from the White House, it was announced that China ‘hawk’ Peter Navarro would be joining the discussions in his capacity as trade adviser to US President Donald Trump, as well as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Economic Policy Advisor Larry Kudlow.</p>
<blockquote><p>Finding a way to monitor the fine print in any subsequent deal proved to be a major sticking point for the US delegation.</p></blockquote>
<p class="p1">“[The talks are aimed at] achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/">the White House stated</a>. “The two sides will also discuss China&#8217;s pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States.”</p>
<p class="p1">A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/new-round-of-us-china-trade-talks-to-begin-in-washington-on-tuesday-idUSKCN1Q804D">low-level meeting led</a> by Jeffrey Gerrish, the deputy US trade representative, was penciled in for Tuesday to prepare the groundwork for the main event.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, major obstacles are believed to exist before <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-risks-being-shunted-into-trade-talks-cul-de-sac/">the March 1 deadline</a> expires after last week’s two-day talkfest ended on a neutral note.</p>
<p class="p1">Finding a way to monitor the fine print in any subsequent deal proved to be a major sticking point for the US delegation, as well as thorny issues such as intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, Beijing’s state-subsidies model and the “Made in China 2025” plan.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Without enforcement, this deal fails,&#8221; Myron Brilliant, the executive vice-president and head of international affairs at the <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/myron-brilliant">US Chamber of Commerce</a>, said.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Implementation and enforcement are going to be two key elements – so you need to have implementation, you need to have follow-through, but you need to have enforcement mechanisms that will ensure that both sides have trust that this deal is sustaining and verifiable,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/19/us-china-trade-war-deal-needs-enforcement-says-chamber-of-commerce.html">he added</a>.</p>
Indonesian domestic says employer violated the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, demands HK$86,000
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/maid-seeks-payout-for-being-filmed-in-shower/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/maid-seeks-payout-for-being-filmed-in-shower/<p>An Indonesian domestic worker who was secretly filmed in the shower has demanded an apology and sought compensation from her former male employer.</p>
<p>The Indonesian woman filed a writ to the District Court on Thursday to demand HK$86,000 (US$10,958) compensation from her former boss. Sin Man-yau, 61, was jailed for four months last year after being found guilty of accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent, the Oriental Daily reported.</p>
<p>According to the writ, Sin set up a hidden camera and filmed the worker when she took a shower for a period of three months in a private residence at Oscar By The Sea in Tseung Kwan O in the New Territories.</p>
<p>On February 24 last year, the worker found a black hidden camera set up in the bathroom. The worker checked the camera and discovered that she had been filmed while bathing between December 1, 2016, to February 24, 2017. She called the police and the man was arrested.</p>
<p>Sin pleaded guilty last year and was jailed for four months.</p>
<p>The worker&#8217;s writ accused the man of breaching the Sex Discrimination Ordinance and demanded that Sin pay her HK$86,000 in compensation for the loss of potential income and emotional injury, Ming Pao Daily reported.</p>
<p>She also demanded a written apology from Sin and a statement that he possesses no more images of her.</p>
<p>The writ noted that Sin had compensated the domestic worker with a payment of HK$19,600, according to her employment contract.</p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/03/article/man-secretly-filmed-maid-shower-pleads-guilty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Man who secretly filmed maid in shower pleads guilty</a></p>
The Iranian allegedly became aggressive after stripping off her clothes and creating a disturbance
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/arrested-woman-burned-cop-with-cigarette/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/arrested-woman-burned-cop-with-cigarette/<p>An Iranian woman arrested for creating a public disturbance in the western Philippines province of Oriental Mindoro allegedly kicked and punched police when she was taken for questioning and then burned one officer’s hand with a cigarette.</p>
<p>Police said they were told <a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/files/2019/02/Fereshteh-Najafi-Marbouyeh.jpeg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fereshteh Najafi Marbouyeh</a>, 31, was drunk in public and stripped off her clothes early Monday morning in Tabinay, a village in Puerto Galera. Officers arrived and tried to calm the woman, the <a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1087079/iranian-woman-burns-puerto-galera-cops-hand-with-cigarette" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philippine Daily Inquirer</a> reported.</p>
<p>She was taken to a police station and allegedly became aggressive, abusing officers and then kicking and punching one investigator, identified only as Henrick Mangarin.</p>
<p>“While he was writing, the woman kicked him while shouting inside the police station. She also burned his hand with a cigarette,” said Chief Inspector Dominador Madrid III, head of the Puerto Galera Municipal Police Station.</p>
<p class="p1">Marbouyeh was charged with direct assault upon a person in authority and is at risk of deportation.</p>
<p class="p1">Last week a Chinese woman was arrested for throwing a cup of soy bean custard dessert at a police officer in a train station in Manila. The woman faces several charges, including direct assault and disobedience to a person in authority.</p>
<p class="p1">Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-woman-jailed-for-assault-on-cop-in-manila/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese woman jailed for assault on cop in Manila</a></p>
Authorities advise citizens not to leave food out for animals
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/wild-boar-encroach-on-suburban-singapore/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/wild-boar-encroach-on-suburban-singapore/<p>Citizens in a suburban area of Singapore have reported spotting a wild boar roaming in their neighborhood.</p>
<p>The boar was last seen on February 18 near Block 544 Choa Chu Kang Street 52 at about 7:30am, the <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/wild-boar-spotted-again-in-choa-chu-kang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Straits Times</a> reported. Residents were seen giving the animal a wide berth.</p>
<p>Anbarasi Boopal, the deputy chief executive of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) said the same boar had been seen in the neighborhood in recent months. She added that the boar may have been fed by locals, as food was seen left out in the open when staff from Acres visited the area previously.</p>
<p>Boopal also said that the management of garbage in the area is very poor, and that this may have contributed to sightings of the boar.</p>
<p>While the local town council is supporting methods to curb wild boar sightings, Boopal stated that awareness has to be raised among citizens.</p>
<p>Acres advised the public to keep their distance from boars during encounters. Citizens were urged not to make any sudden movements if a wild animal approaches them.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_vvj_w7FaYc" width="540" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
Saudi Crown Prince’s visit brings trade deals and $20-billion bailout amid tense time on the subcontinent
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/mbs-provides-strong-timely-support-for-pakistan/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/mbs-provides-strong-timely-support-for-pakistan/<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The two-day visit to Pakistan by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ended on Monday with much-needed financial and diplomatic support for Islamabad. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Crown Prince, generally known as MBS, staged a <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1464594/pm-khan-coas-gen-bajwa-see-off-saudi-crown-prince-as-royal-visit-comes-to-an-end"><span class="s2">joint press conference</span></a> with Prime Minister Imran Khan before departing for the rest of his three-nation tour, which will take him to India and China this week.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The feel-good factor of the visit was encapsulated by <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-releases-2-107-pakistani-prisoners-1.827087"><span class="s2">Saudi Arabia releasing 2,107 Pakistani prisoners</span></a> following a personal request to MBS by Khan in his welcome address at the Prime Minister&#8217;s House on Sunday.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">MBS’s visit was headlined by <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-arabia-to-invest-20bn-in-pakistan/"><span class="s2">US$20 billion</span></a> worth of Saudi investments in Pakistan, which includes a $10-billion oil refinery near Gwadar port. Several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were also signed between the two countries on trade, investment, power generation, renewable energy, mineral exploitation and sport.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Saudi investment comes at a time when Pakistan faces a balance of payment crisis and is <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-passes-new-finance-bill-to-avoid-imf-bailout/?_=8172684"><span class="s2">looking to avoid</span></a> going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 13th</span><span class="s1"> bailout program. Similarly, energy agreements are designed to help Pakistan bridge a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistans-multi-pronged-gas-crisis-worsens-over-winter/?_=9826087"><span class="s2">crippling shortfall of gas</span></a> in the long run.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_313443" style="width: 1596px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-313443" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/MBS-in-Islamabad-e1550567598699.jpg" alt="" width="1596" height="924" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/MBS-in-Islamabad-e1550567598699.jpg 1596w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/MBS-in-Islamabad-e1550567598699-768x445.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/MBS-in-Islamabad-e1550567598699-1568x908.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Pakistan&#8217;s Prime Minister Imran Khan, second left in white, and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, right, walk with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after his arrival in Islamabad. Photo: AFP / Pakistan PM&#8217;s House</figcaption></figure>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Abdul Razak Dawood, an advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, said: “We are extremely happy that the Saudis have come and invested in the country. Now we want Pakistani investors to do the same. The world is now looking to invest here. Pakistan is now open for business. Now we need to make sure that both investors and the country profit.” </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Dawood also confirmed that following the agreements with Saudi Arabia another large investment from the UAE will follow soon.</span></p>
<h4>Tense standoff with India</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">While the investment and MoUs were agreed prior to the Saudi Crown Prince formally signing them in Islamabad, MBS’s visit coincided with a tense standoff between Pakistan and India after a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/?_=7055442"><span class="s2">bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir that claimed 44 lives</span></a> last Thursday.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sources confirmed that Pakistan decided it <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-unlikely-to-act-against-terror-group/"><span class="s2">would not take action</span></a> against Jaish-e-Mohammad, the terror group behind the Kashmir attack, after it received reassurances of support from both China and Saudi Arabia.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The extent of MBS’s diplomatic support for Islamabad was evident in the <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1464594/pm-khan-coas-gen-bajwa-see-off-saudi-crown-prince-as-royal-visit-comes-to-an-end"><span class="s2">joint statement issued</span></a> by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The statement released in the Pakistani media mentions PM Khan briefing “the Crown Prince on the grave human rights violations in IOK [Indian Occupied Kashmir] and the need for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.” </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">However, Asia Times has learnt that the statement was released through local media, whereas the <a href="https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewstory.php?newsid=1887194"><span class="s2">original joint statement</span></a> does not mention the word &#8216;Kashmir&#8217;. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sources said the Saudi Crown Prince was clear on the fact that Indian actions in Kashmir would not be mentioned in the joint statement, despite Pakistani leaders wanting that. That was understandable, given MBS flew on to New Delhi to enhance bilateral cooperation with India, where the Modi government was expected to press him for strong condemnation of cross-border terrorism. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Despite the omission of Kashmir from the official statement, Islamabad felt it had won the diplomatic support that it needed after the joint statement underlined the need to “avoid politicization of the UN listing regime”.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“This is as clear a reference as possible to India pushing for [Jaish-e-Mohammad chief] Masood Azhar being listed as a globally designated terrorist at the United Nations. This is a major diplomatic win for Pakistan amid baseless Indian allegations,” a senior diplomat said.</span></p>
<h4>MBS avoids direct flight from Pakistan to India</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">While there are diplomatic gains from MBS’s visit and statements in Pakistan, observers suggest a clearer picture will emerge following the Saudi Crown Prince&#8217;s visit to India, where he could issue a statement that New Delhi might also interpret in its favor.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">However, diplomatic sources confirmed that MBS has told both Pakistan and India that Saudi Arabia would not let ties with either side be compromised by the bilateral conflict. Indeed, the Crown Prince even flew back to Riyadh first after India objected to a direct arrival from Pakistan. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">As <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-informed-of-increased-role-in-saudi-led-military-coalition-ahead-of-mbs-visit/?_=311755"><span class="s2">reported by Asia Times</span></a> in the lead-up to MBS’s Asia tour, Riyadh’s support for Islamabad – both diplomatic and financial – has come in exchange for Pakistan’s enhanced military involvement with Saudi Arabia.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Details of the new military role were conveyed last week by General (retired) Raheel Sharif, a former Pakistan Army chief who now leads the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC). This arrangement was reaffirmed during MBS’s meeting with the Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Military sources say that Pakistan will increase its number of troops as part of the bilateral agreement with Saudi Arabia, while boosting its military involvement in IMCTC.</span></p>
<h4>Iran warns its neighbor</h4>
<p>These developments have been watched closely by Iran. <span class="s1"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-pakistan/iran-asks-pakistan-to-move-against-attackers-warns-saudi-idUSKCN1Q507R"><span class="s2">Tehran openly warned Islamabad</span></a> against harboring Jaish-al-Adl, the jihadist group that killed 27 of its Revolutionary Guards in a suicide bombing last week. Observers suspect Pakistan would offer little resistance in backing the Saudi-led Islamic Coalition, which is largely believed to be aligned against Iran and its allies.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir said Iran was the “world&#8217;s chief sponsor of terrorism”. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">That seems to suggest that Islamabad may believe that alienating Tehran is a small price to pay in exchange for all that Riyadh is offering.</span></p>
Lord Mayor Peter Estlin is on a 12-day trip to Asia to beef up ties and offer assurances
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/city-of-london-turns-to-asia-as-brexit-looms/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/city-of-london-turns-to-asia-as-brexit-looms/<p>The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Peter Estlin, paid an official visit to Hong Kong this week to reinforce the United Kingdom’s links with the territory. He is also an ambassador of the UK’s financial and professional services.</p>
<p>Hong Kong is the third stop in his 12-day visit to Asia, and no visit by UK officials and business leaders at this juncture would be complete without discussing Brexit. Estlin has sought to provide reassurance about London’s long-term strengths to Asian partners in advance of the UK’s departure from the European Union.</p>
<p>&#8220;In regard to Brexit – yes, we have experienced a period of uncertainty. However, the UK will come through this, just as we have come through periods of uncertainty throughout history. What does need to come through, and I hope it will do soon, is the sheer scale of innovation in the UK,&#8221; said Estlin, who voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.</p>
<p>He said the City of London had been working with the UK government and industry partners to create the certainty that business would need. In the longer term, London’s strengths would help it transcend what he called &#8220;short-term&#8221; impact of Brexit and remain an international financial center.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-313428" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7226.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7226.jpg 4032w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7226-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7226-1568x1176.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 4032px) 100vw, 4032px" /></p>
<figure id="attachment_313430" style="width: 4032px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-313430" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7224.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7224.jpg 4032w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7224-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7224-1568x1176.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 4032px) 100vw, 4032px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Day and night in the City of London. Brexit notwithstanding, the Square Mile will remain a prominent global financial center, said its Lord Mayor Peter Estlin. Photos: Sunny Sky for Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>The UK is a leading exporter of financial services, booking a trade surplus of US$92.9 billion in 2018. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London">City of London</a>, the jewel in the crown, has more foreign banks than any other financial center. The UK&#8217;s financial and professional services as a whole employ 2.2 million people, of whom 1.4 million are based outside London, according to the City of London Corporation, which is the governing body of the Square Mile.</p>
<p>The looming hard Brexit – the UK being booted out of the EU if a deal cannot be agreed upon before the March deadline – has made it incumbent upon the City of London to cement financial and business ties with its fellow international financial centers across Asia.</p>
<p>Before departing Hong Kong, Estlin hosted a press conference briefing the local and international media about the City of London&#8217;s core messages on the UK’s departure from the EU and its partnership approach to developing opportunities between Hong Kong and mainland China with the wider UK economy.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313433" style="width: 4032px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-313433" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7211.jpg" alt="" width="4032" height="3024" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7211.jpg 4032w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7211-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMG_7211-1568x1176.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 4032px) 100vw, 4032px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Peter Estlin said the City of London and the broader UK could not afford to be left behind when the world is pivoting East. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>He stressed that London, and more broadly the UK, were home to a leading international financial center and remained the global partners of choice for Hong Kong and mainland China for financial and professional services.</p>
<p>He said London, Hong Kong and mainland China had much to gain from boosting cooperation, particularly in industries of the future like financial technology, artificial intelligence and cyber innovation, and collaborating in the Belt and Road infrastructure financing and RMB offshore trading.</p>
<p>His visit also came in the wake of the launch of a new UK government pilot program supporting British companies looking to expand into the Hong Kong fintech market.</p>
<p>Over the last five years, there has been 15% growth in UK companies opening offices in Hong Kong, and the City of London is now home to more than 50 Hong Kong financial firms that employ more than 6,000 people.</p>
<p>“Significant long-term opportunities for the UK are to be found in Asia. The world is pivoting East, and we cannot afford to be left behind,&#8221; Estlin said.</p>
<p>Estlin lived in Hong Kong between 1996 and 1999, during the handover and the nascent years of the city as a special administrative region under Beijing&#8217;s suzerainty. He became the 691st Lord Mayor of the City of London and assumed his tenure in November 2018.</p>
Authorities say the two children may have fallen into the pond while playing
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indonesian-police-investigate-toddler-deaths/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indonesian-police-investigate-toddler-deaths/<p>Indonesian police have embarked on an investigation after two toddlers were found dead in a fishpond in north Sumatra.</p>
<p>The two young children, Nazla Lubis, 3, and Ananda Riswan Lubis, 4, were found in the pond belonging to a neighbor in Simpang Gambir, Lingga Bayu in the Mandailing Natal regency at about 6:15pm on February 16, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/18/north-sumatra-police-probe-drowning-deaths-of-two-children-in-fishpond.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Jakarta Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>Dhamos Aritonang, the criminal investigation chief of the Mandailing Natal Police said the two children may have fallen into the pond while playing nearby. He added that the two were rushed to a clinic but could not be revived.</p>
<p>A number of witnesses were questioned about the deaths, including the owner of the fishpond.</p>
<p>A need for water safety programs for children has been a hot topic in Indonesia in the past few weeks. Last November, the 16-month-old grandson of a politician drowned in a fishpond at the family’s house in South Jakarta.</p>
A Filipina said the man threatened to circulate nude photos of her unless she agreed to have sex
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indian-accused-of-online-blackmail-attempt/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indian-accused-of-online-blackmail-attempt/<p>An Indian man has been arrested for trying to blackmail a Filipina after they met on a social networking site in Dubai, with the man allegedly threatening to circulate naked pictures of the woman unless she agreed to have sex with him or hand over some money.</p>
<p>The Filipina, 39, told police that the 31-year-old Indian posed as a Frenchman online and she agreed to send him pictures and a video of herself taking a shower, the <a href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/crime-and-courts/man-in-dubai-blackmails-woman-for-sex-with-indecent-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Khaleej Times</a> reported. Later she told the man that she was looking for a job.</p>
<p>She was given a phone number that he said belonged to his secretary and told to forward her resumé; however, it turned out to be the Indian’s own phone number. Revealing that he was the “Frenchman” she had met online, he allegedly threatened to circulate the naked videos of her if she did not have sex with him or pay him 2,000 dirhams (US$545).</p>
<p class="p1">Bur Dubai police arrested the man and confiscated his phones as part of their investigation. They said the Indian had admitted during interrogation that he had threatened and attempted to blackmail the Filipina for money, but denied having done so for sex.</p>
<p class="p1">The verdict will be issued on February 28.</p>
Police are checking whether the mainland Chinese was also involved in other recent burglaries
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-arrested-over-3000-robbery-at-villa/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/man-arrested-over-3000-robbery-at-villa/<p>A 30-year-old man from mainland China is being questioned by police over a burglary at a villa in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island in which valuables worth about US$3,000 were reported missing. They are also checking his possible connection with other robberies.</p>
<p>The occupant returned home at 2pm on Sunday to find the villa on Siena Avenue had been ransacked and alerted police, the Oriental Daily reported.</p>
<p>Officers spotted the suspect nearby and searched his <a href="http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20190219/photo/0219-00176-027b1.jpg?t=1550560205687" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backpack</a>, finding two crowbars, three pairs of gloves and a face mask. They also found some Hong Kong banknotes and $3,000 in US banknotes.</p>
<p>The crime investigation unit at Lantau North Police Station is investigating the case.</p>
Children are not given Israeli citizenship if they are not born to Israeli citizens
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/israel-to-deport-filipino-workers-and-children/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/israel-to-deport-filipino-workers-and-children/<p class="p1">Dozens of Filipino migrant workers and their children have been arrested in Israel and are now facing deportation.</p>
<p class="p1">The Population, Immigration and Border Authority said the children were either born in Israel or have spent most of their lives in the country, and Hebrew is their first or only language. Last week, three Filipino mothers were jailed and made to sign an agreement to leave the country along with their children by July, <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/195540-190218-israel-continues-deportation-of-filipino-workers-children-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">i24News Israel</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Some Filipino migrant workers have given birth while working in Israel as carers looking after the elderly and others with special needs. However, many of these Filipino children are illegal residents as Israeli law only grants citizenship to children born to Israeli citizens.</p>
<p class="p1">A 10-year-old Filipino child whose mother was arrested last Sunday, said he fears leaving Israel as he has grown up in the country and knows nothing about the Philippines. The young boy added that he can’t speak Tagalog and only knows Hebrew.</p>
<p class="p1">One Filipina worker said her son doesn’t know anything outside of Israel and wants to remain in the country he considers to be his home.</p>
<p class="p1">Migrant workers have come together to form the United Children of Israel, an organization that aims to protect Filipino children from deportation.</p>
<p class="p1">“Our children were born and grew up in Israel. Don’t let the deportation happen. Join the fight,” the organization stated in a public appeal.</p>
The government plans to assess cyber security risks before allowing Huawei to take part in 5G trials
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indias-5g-trials-soon-huaweis-fate-uncertain/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indias-5g-trials-soon-huaweis-fate-uncertain/<p>As India prepares to kick off 5G mobile phone network trials, it is yet to make a decision on the participation of Chinese telecom giant Huawei. This comes in the wake of security concerns raised by the US and other countries.</p>
<p>The home ministry has called for a thorough assessment of cyber security and for the need to ensure that necessary safeguards are in place before allowing Huawei to take part in the trials. Various ministries are reportedly deliberating the issue, <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/huawei-may-not-be-part-of-5g-trials/1491691/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Financial Express </a>reports.</p>
<p>Huawei has already received permission from the Department of Telecom (DoT) to conduct 5G trials in India. Ericsson and Samsung have applied to the DoT for trials, while Nokia is yet to make an official approach.</p>
<p>India&#8217;s largest mobile phone service provider, Vodafone Idea, has submitted a joint application with Huawei for 5G trials, while the second largest operator Airtel has sought permission with both Huawei and Ericsson in different locations. Reliance Jio will conduct trials with Samsung. Nokia, meanwhile, has expressed a desire to run trials with state-run BSNL.</p>
<p><strong>Trial period</strong></p>
<p>The DoT and the telecom industry are yet to reach a consensus regarding the timing of the trials. While the industry has been demanding spectrum (the required frequency bands) for one year to carry out trials, the DoT rules allow allocation of trial spectrum bands for only three months.</p>
<p>Although this has become a roadblock for 5G trials, the DoT is reportedly hopeful of breaking the deadlock soon.</p>
<p><strong>Support sought</strong></p>
<p><b></b>The mobile phone service providers&#8217; industry body Cellular Operators&#8217; Association of India (<a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/govt-should-provide-financial-support-to-facilitate-major-5g-trials-in-india-coai-3555231.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COAI</a>) has sought various concessions for taking part in the upcoming trials.</p>
<p>COAI wants the government to provide financial support and subsidies to facilitate the trials. It has also sought a waiver of fees on network equipment purchases for the entire trial period.</p>
Duchess of Sussex takes on a new role as royal patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/meghan-adds-a-fresh-dimension-to-royal-family/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/meghan-adds-a-fresh-dimension-to-royal-family/<p>His Royal Highness Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and his brother Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, are expected to divide their shared household and create separate courts in the next few weeks to reflect the changing responsibilities of their roles. While the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge face the reality of William’s future role at the helm of the British Monarchy, the Duke &amp; Duchess of Sussex will play a prominent role as figureheads of the British Commonwealth.</p>
<p>Alleged frictions on a soap-operatic scale between the two families have been reported in recent months. All the rumors orbit around Harry’s new spouse Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. Rifts between wives, clashes between brothers, awkward gaffes involving bananas, an alienated family, dismayed courtiers, as well as a string of staff departures over the ‘Duchess Difficult,’ including a Scotland Yard bodyguard, a revolving door of long-serving aides and a private secretary. Today’s announcement of a divide of communications teams, along with a formal announcement of the Duke &amp; Duchess of Sussex’ move out of William and Harry’s childhood home of Kensington Palace, once shared with their beloved mother Princess Diana, is an effort to ease tension and reflect their changing responsibilities.</p>
<p>It would seem Queen Elizabeth has Meghan’s back. Reportedly she was delighted with the Duchess of Sussex’ “Commonwealth” wedding veil. A few months ago, after weeks of palace rumors about tensions between Prince Harry’s American bride and ranking members of the royal family, the Queen gave Meghan, her first official royal role. Buckingham Palace announced that the Duchess, the first American member of the Windsor family as well as its first member of African descent, would become the patroness of four charitable institutions. She will become Royal Patron for a number of patronages, one of which being the Association of Commonwealth Universities.</p>
<p>Smoothing her way into a public role will test the capacity of the British Monarchy to broaden its appeal to include the 53 countries of the British Commonwealth. But it’s not clear yet whether the British backlash against Meghan and her ‘change all’ and overt social justice views will enable the couple to promote the goals of the Commonwealth or create new ‘Brexit level’ divide of opinion.</p>
<p>In her new role as patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Meghan has backed a campaign by black academics to ‘decolonize the curriculum’. She told scholars: “Just open up that conversation so we are talking about it, as opposed to continuing with that daily rote … sometimes that approach can be really antiquated and needs an update.”</p>
<p>The “decolonization” movement wants to confront the ‘male, pale &amp; stale professors’ and ensure there is more diversity among teachers in higher education. As British universities have struggled to make progress in promoting black and other minority staff to senior positions, an expected reaction from the Establishment or the tabloids might be to ‘fail, jail and derail.’</p>
<p>The American media and Meghan’s celebrity friends have rallied to the defense of their American Princess, but it fails to understand the British modus operandi. Meghan’s chagrin at the perceived inadequacy of the UK’s racial equality programs in universities is arguably an irony. It’s not as if racially-based social justice programs in American universities have been a resounding success. Putting social justice at the heart of the British Monarchy may be the start of a new civil war.</p>
<p>Dr Kehinde Andrews, a professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, is skeptical that Meghan can change views on racism and diversity in the UK. In a recent article, Dr Andrews argued that she will not be allowed to be a “black princess.”</p>
<p>“The Royal Family is probably our premier institution of whiteness if you look at the idea of the Empire, the Commonwealth, the time when Britain was great and Britannia ruled the waves.&#8221;</p>
<p>It’s not a coincidence that 68% of people think that colonialism was a good thing and about 68% of people believe that the monarchy is a good thing as well. So the monarchy is this kind of symbol of many of the problems with Britain and how it relates to race.”</p>
<p>In 2015, Meghan wrote an article for Elle magazine talking, about her own experiences of having a black mother and white father, and the &#8220;undercurrent of racism that is so prevalent, especially within America.&#8221; She added: “While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that. To say who I am, to share where I’m from to voice my pride in being a strong, confident, mixed-race woman.”</p>
<p>If the Duchess does not overreach, she will have an important voice. Among the Duchess’s new Patronages, there’s a grand platform to connect with all women, plus 30% of the world’s population of which 60% are under 30 (the world&#8217;s most connected generation). The Association of Commonwealth Universities, the voice of higher education across the Commonwealth, which supports the development of higher education, is excited to have Meghan as their royal figurehead, across more than 50 countries, including Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Singapore.</p>
<p>As Britain teeters on the brink of a great fall out of the European Union, the thoughts of the royal family turn to the former British Empire, and most of all to Asia, where a post-Brexit Britain will seek its future. More than economics is in play; a majority of members of the Anglican Communion are now Africans from former British colonies, a fact that bears on the Queen’s role as head of the Church of England.</p>
Residents complained about illegal motorcycle racing taking place on an unfinished section of toll road
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/illegal-street-racers-arrested-in-jakarta/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/illegal-street-racers-arrested-in-jakarta/<p class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-p1"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s1">Authorities in Indonesia have conducted a raid that saw illegal street racers arrested and dozens of motorcycles confiscated.</span></p>
<p class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-p1"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s1">Lalu Hedwin of the South Tangerang Traffic Police said that 82 motorcycles were seized and many riders arrested in an operation that took place at an unfinished section of the Cinere-Serping toll road in South Tangerang, Banten, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/18/illegal-racers-leave-motorcycles-behind-in-attempt-to-escape-police.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/18/illegal-racers-leave-motorcycles-behind-in-attempt-to-escape-police.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550639778518000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF0qGD6KSJVYOqEnyPcAcuC2UtZmA"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s2"><b>The Jakarta Post </b></span></a>reported. Some racers were caught while trying to escape and others were arrested while still on their bikes.</span></p>
<p class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-p1"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s1">The alleged racers were taken in for questioning and may be charged with creating public unrest.</span></p>
<p class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-p1"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s1">Hedwin added that his office received multiple complaints from residents disturbed by an illegal race taking place on the unfinished section of toll road.<span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-p1"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s1">The toll road is set to connect Serpong to Cinere and Cengkareng areas in Tangerang, Greater Jakarta.</span></p>
<p class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-p1"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s1">Indonesia has had a problem with street racing in recent years. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbkazb/the-indonesian-teenagers-competing-in-illegal-drag-races" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbkazb/the-indonesian-teenagers-competing-in-illegal-drag-races&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1550639778518000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFz2wfRwxoFZD0U5RBEMYhqb6LaZA"><span class="m_-629153749008445069gmail-s2"><b>Youngsters as young as 12 years old </b></span></a>are known to compete in drag races with racers and spectators gambling on race results.</span></p>
The case has been shelved due to a lack of evidence and no further investigation will take place
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/case-against-macau-kindergarten-worker-dropped/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/case-against-macau-kindergarten-worker-dropped/<p>Citing a lack of evidence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Macau has dropped a sexual abuse case against a former kindergarten worker from the Philippines.</p>
<p>The 26-year-old Filipino De Leon, who worked at the D. José da Costa Nunes Kindergarten, was arrested in May last year for allegedly sexually harassing three girls under his care, Macao Daily News reported, citing Macau’s Portuguese newspaper Ponto Final.</p>
<p>Parents received notifications from the Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday that the case has been shelved due to a lack of evidence, adding that no further investigation will take place.</p>
<p>It is understood that the worker has been fired from his job with the kindergarten, and because of the investigation, has been barred from leaving Macau.</p>
<p>The man was a janitor who had worked at the kindergarten for four years. One of his jobs was to help take children to the washroom, to clean and change their diapers.</p>
<p>Judiciary police said last year that medical examinations of the alleged victims had shown no evidence of sexual abuse. However, they could not rule out the possibility that he might have touched the girls’ private parts or otherwise abused them while he was alone with them.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/05/article/police-probe-filipino-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-at-kindergarten/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read: Police probe Filipino for alleged sexual abuse at kindergarten</a></p>
The Philippine government launches a mandatory program to help overseas workers better manage their finances
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/financial-education-for-filipino-migrant-workers/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/financial-education-for-filipino-migrant-workers/<p class="p1">A new government ruling means Filipino migrant workers are now required to attend a compulsory financial literacy seminar before they head overseas.</p>
<p class="p1">The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has launched the Pinansyal na Talino at Kaalam (PiTaKa) program that will be part of the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar and Post-Arrival Orientation Seminar of Filipino migrant workers, <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/balitambayan/pinoyabroad/685339/mga-ofw-isasailalim-na-rin-sa-financial-literacy-seminar/story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GMA News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Under the program, Filipino migrant workers will be educated on managing their finances better, especially once they start working overseas. The program aims to help Filipinos to save enough money until they eventually decide to establish their own businesses in the Philippines or abroad.</p>
<p class="p1">OWWA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said the program will help ensure that Filipino migrant workers have “better financial behavior”. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., 35.5% of Filipino workers set aside their remittances as savings. Of that number, 5% invest their money in financial instruments.</p>
<p class="p1">“As remittances consistently account for 10% of the Philippines’ gross domestic product, Filipino migrant workers are indeed modern-day heroes. Yet, we continue to hear stories of Filipinos facing financial struggles,” Espenilla said.</p>
<p class="p1">The program is spearheaded by the BSP in partnership with OWWA and the BDO Foundation.</p>
Five crew are missing but 64 others were rescued after fishing-boat drama off the Falklands
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipinos-missing-after-fire-on-taiwanese-boat/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipinos-missing-after-fire-on-taiwanese-boat/<p>Five Filipino crew members on a Taiwan-registered fishing boat are missing after the vessel caught fire on February 11 off the Falkland Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean.</p>
<p>Another 64 people who were on board the vessel were rescued and taken to safety, an official with Kaohsiung City&#8217;s Marine Bureau said this week.</p>
<p>The 998-ton longliner Jun Rong had a crew of 69 at the time of the drama – four Taiwanese, 22 Filipinos, 28 Indonesians, one Chinese, nine Vietnamese and five from Myanmar.</p>
<p>The vessel caught fire at around 60 nautical miles north of Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, The Taiwan Times reported.</p>
<p>One of the Indonesian fishermen who was rescued, a man named Aan Hen Sueke, managed to take several <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aan.alfaris.3/posts/254374798813380" target="_blank" rel="noopener">videos</a> of the burning vessel. He told the media they suspected that a generator had exploded and started the fierce blaze. But, the actual cause of the fire was not known.</p>
<p>The Philippine Embassy in London said in a statement on February 15 that it remained hopeful that the five missing Filipinos would be found, and they were continuing to coordinate with UK authorities in regard to the search.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they had also sought assistance from the UK government in regard to the drama.</p>
<p>The 64 crew members were taken to safety in Port Montevideo in Uruguay and the Jung Ron fishing company has promised to provide any assistance necessary to help them to return to their respective home countries.</p>
Tip-off sees thief arrested at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, but accomplice is still being hunted
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bag-snatcher-nabbed-after-two-week-manhunt/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bag-snatcher-nabbed-after-two-week-manhunt/<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Police in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam have arrested a bag snatcher who robbed a Vietnamese-Singaporean woman two weeks ago.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">On February 3, Le Lam Bao Tran was taking photos with her family on Thi Sach Street in District 1 when two men on a motorbike grabbed her handbag and drove off, <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/saigon-police-arrest-bag-snatcher-after-two-week-hunt-3882987.html"><span class="s2"><b>VN Express</b></span></a> reported. The bag reportedly contained cash, credit cards and personal identity documents.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">But the victim was lucky – a relative clicked a photo at the very moment the robbery took place, capturing the bag snatcher’s face and enabling the authorities to actively search for the thief. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The bag snatcher was identified as Thach Thanh Truyen, 24, and arrested on Monday, February 18.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Authorities received a tip-off about Truyen’s whereabouts. The man had reportedly returned home to Tra Vinh province after the robbery, but he was caught at a hotel in the Binh Chanh district in Ho Chi Minh City, where he was staying with his girlfriend. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Truyen’s accomplice, who has yet to be identified, is still being hunted by city police.</span></p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ho-chi-minh-bag-snatchers-caught-on-camera/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ho Chi Minh bag snatchers caught on camera</a></p>
Man ‘offered Filipinos domestic work and smuggled them on boats via Vietnam’ but had no permits
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-held-for-trafficking-filipinos-to-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/chinese-held-for-trafficking-filipinos-to-china/<p class="p1">A Chinese man has been arrested in the Philippines for illegally recruiting and trafficking Filipinos to work in China.</p>
<p class="p1">The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Kai Kai Wang, alias Jackson Ong, was arrested on Friday in his office in Binondo, Manila. The NBI also arrested his secretary, a Filipina named June Rose Taguba De Agtaran, <a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/pinoyabroad/news/685327/chinese-national-nabbed-for-trafficking-pinay-workers-to-china/story/?inside_ataglance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GMA News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The NBI said it sent officers to Wang’s office who pretended to be applicants interested in working in China. The officers then arrested Wang – and five Filipino women who applied for work at his office were rescued.</p>
<p class="p1">Wang reportedly offered Filipinos jobs as domestic workers in China with a monthly salary of 40,000 pesos (US$764). However, the Chinese man did not have a permit to offer jobs in his homeland and is not approved by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency.</p>
<p class="p1">Wang’s &#8220;agency&#8221; was also accused of smuggling applicants to China via boats from Vietnam with no proper permits or paperwork to undertake such an operation.</p>
<p class="p1">The NBI is investigating the status of other Filipino workers who were sent illegally to China through Wang’s agency.</p>
Two men who tried to mediate a work-related argument in Taoyuan were stabbed, one later died
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnamese-held-in-taiwan-for-fatal-stabbing/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/vietnamese-held-in-taiwan-for-fatal-stabbing/<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Authorities in Taiwan have detained seven migrant workers from Vietnam for possible links to the murder of a man from their homeland.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Local media reported that a migrant worker surnamed Vu got into a heated argument with a colleague over work-related matters on Sunday February 17 in Taoyuan city. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Two Vietnamese men named Truong and Nguyen tried to stop the dispute but were stabbed in an altercation, <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/seven-vietnamese-workers-arrested-after-fatal-stabbing-in-taiwan-3882861.html"><span class="s2"><b>VN Express</b></span></a> reported.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Truong and Nguyen were found lying in a pool of blood when the police arrived at the scene. The two were rushed to a local hospital. Truong succumbed to his wounds but Nguyen survived and is still being treated.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Seven Vietnamese suspects, including Vu, are currently in custody facing charges relating to the murder of Truong and the stabbing of Nguyen.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 2015, Taiwan lifted a 10-year ban on categories of Vietnamese workers, which attracted more migrant workers from Vietnam looking for jobs abroad. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Last year about 65,000 workers from Vietnam went to work in Taiwan, which was almost half of the Vietnamese workers overseas. Taiwan is popular because workers can earn three to four times the average wage they receive at home.</span></p>
The trio pleaded guilty to using false documents to try to open bank accounts in Hong Kong
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipinos-jailed-for-use-of-fake-documents/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipinos-jailed-for-use-of-fake-documents/<p>Three Filipinos charged with using false documents to open bank accounts in Hong Kong were sentenced to five months&#8217; jail at Eastern Magistrates Court on Monday.</p>
<p>Enrique Vargas, 30, a customer service representative; Ryan S Illustrisimo, 30, an administrative assistant; and Maureen M Gutierrez, 23 an assistant supervisor, each pleaded guilty to two counts of using a &#8220;false instrument”, hongkongnews.com.hk reported.</p>
<p>Magistrate Lam Tsz-kan said the three defendants could be jailed for six months for each charge but got lesser terms because of their guilty plea.</p>
<p>The court heard earlier that the three Filipinos arrived as tourists on October 9 last year. The next day they were arrested when they tried to open individual savings accounts at a Bank of China branch in Admiralty on Hong Kong Island. They presented copies of purported work contracts to bank staff, claiming that they were employees of Wharf Holdings and eligible to open accounts.</p>
<p>They also submitted forged documents showing addresses in Hong Kong and the Philippines.</p>
<p>A lawyer for the defendants said her clients were enticed to “go on a free tour of Hong Kong,” with free board and lodging and airline tickets. She said they accepted the offer out of greed, but were now remorseful.</p>
<p>Police investigators suspect that the bank accounts would have been used for money laundering activities but the defendants’ lawyer said they did not know anything except that they were offered a free tour to Hong Kong.</p>
<p>Under Hong Kong law, the charge of “using a false instrument” can carry a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.</p>
India’s leading budget carrier is adding one aircraft per week, but does not have enough pilots to fly them
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indigo-faces-pilot-shortage-flights-hit/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indigo-faces-pilot-shortage-flights-hit/<p>Over the past few weeks, the image of India&#8217;s largest airline by market share, IndiGo, has taken a hard knock because of a slew of abrupt cancellations, which have angered passengers and drawn flak on social media.</p>
<p>The budget carrier has blamed the cancellations on curtailment of operations at the country&#8217;s two major airports, Mumbai and Bangalore, but industry analysts claim IndiGo has mishandled its capacity-addition plans and failed to ensure adequate crew numbers.</p>
<p>The airline&#8217;s officials, however, expressed confidence that things were under control and its expansion plans would stay on course. They admitted there was a &#8220;slight mismatch&#8221; between the projected and the actual availability of pilots, especially commanders, but said things would stabilize by April, <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/indigo-crisis-explained-planes-planes-everywhere-but-no-one-to-fly-them-119021700545_1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Business Standard </a>reports.</p>
<p>IndiGo&#8217;s current woes may be traced to its acquisition of Airbus A320neo aircraft. Last year its Pratt and Whitney engines developed problems and many aircraft had to be grounded.</p>
<p>This increased the bench strength and the employee wage bill, as the airline had to continue paying for an underutilized crew. So it stopped hiring pilots.</p>
<p>However, once problems with the Airbus A320neo were fixed and the supply resumed, the budget airline did not have enough pilots to fly them.</p>
<p>It is currently adding one aircraft a week and existing pilots are being made to fly extra hours. Some have even quit because of the extra workload.</p>
<p>Poaching commanders from rival airlines has also become difficult as they need to serve a notice period of one year. So the only course left is to hire pilots from overseas, especially Latin America and West Asia, where pilots are facing job losses.</p>
<p>But inducting expatriate pilots takes time as they have to secure various clearances from security agencies and the pilots have to undergo various tests conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.</p>
<p>The budget airline hopes to induct 100 expat pilots and upgrade 200 of its first officers to mitigate the shortage.</p>
The American Institute in Taiwan’s board members and officers ‘should be Senate-confirmed,’ critic says
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ex-diplomat-calls-for-oversight-of-us-office-in-taiwan/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/ex-diplomat-calls-for-oversight-of-us-office-in-taiwan/<p>The American Institute in Taiwan is Washington&#8217;s de facto embassy on the self-ruled island, created four decades ago in 1979 as a result of then-president Jimmy Carter&#8217;s decision to shift the US diplomatic mission from Taipei to Beijing.</p>
<p>The AIT has just announced its event calendar to celebrate its 40th anniversary, which was marked earlier this month, as well as its activities to acknowledge the 40 years of the Taiwan Relations Act, a quasi-security treaty that ensures the island is treated as the functional equivalent of an independent country by the US.</p>
<p>But John J Tkacik Jr, a retired US Foreign Service officer who served in Taipei and Beijing and who is now director of the Future Asia Project at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, has fired a shot across the AIT&#8217;s bow.</p>
<p>Tkacik questioned in his column in the Taipei Times how an unofficial, non-governmental body like the AIT could assume the complex and interconnected burdens of US relations with Taiwan.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312971" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="size-full wp-image-312971" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-18-at-5.49.30-PM.png" alt="" width="321" height="283" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">John J Tkacik Jr once served in Taipei and Beijing as a career diplomat. Photo: Facebook via Liberty Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>The AIT was put together on an ad hoc basis by Richard Holbrooke, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs under the Carter administration, after Washington inked a normalization agreement with Beijing on December 15, 1978.</p>
<p>Tkacik wrote that the AIT was hastily staffed with retired Foreign Service officers to fill the void left by Washington shifting its embassy to the mainland, and, because of the vague descriptions of minimal congressional supervision in its documents, there was a lack of oversight by the US State Department of the AIT’s operations.</p>
<p>Tkacik suggested that all AIT officers should be Senate-confirmed to fill active duty posts for the military and navy, as well as the Foreign Service &#8220;to resemble the constitutionally prescribed &#8216;advice and consent&#8217; that attends any president’s nomination of persons entrusted as &#8216;Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls.'&#8221;</p>
<p>The AIT has a small headquarters office in Arlington county, Virginia, with its largest office located in Taipei. The organization also has a small branch office in Taiwan&#8217;s southern port city of Kaohsiung.</p>
<p>Tkacik noted that in 2012, the State Department offered 27 recommendations on the operations of the AIT’s Washington office, suggesting that the Washington office serves no substantive purpose aside from attending quarterly board meetings. As well, the nomination and appointment of the AIT&#8217;s trustees and officers was done largely through &#8220;back-channel whispers, winks and nods.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said the AIT must be treated as any other wholly owned “unofficial” government enterprise that spends only taxpayers’ money and performs only the duties entrusted to it, so its governing board and officers should be confirmed by the US Senate.</p>
<figure id="attachment_253161" style="width: 1314px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-253161" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/5b1f57d7b6521.jpg" alt="The American Institute in Taiwan is set to move into its brand-new office in Taipei's Neihu district. Photo: Facebook via newtalk.tw" width="1314" height="878" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/5b1f57d7b6521.jpg 1314w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/5b1f57d7b6521-580x388.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1314px) 100vw, 1314px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The American Institute in Taiwan inaugurated its brand-new complex in Taipei&#8217;s Neihu district last year. Photo: Facebook via newtalk.tw</figcaption></figure>
<p>The AIT is a non-profit corporation and the Department of State, through a semi-official contract, provides guidance and some funding for its operations. The AIT is staffed by employees of the Department of State and other governmental agencies as well as by locally hired clerks.</p>
<p>Prior to a 2002 amendment to the Foreign Service Act, US government employees were required to resign from government service for their period of assignment to the AIT.</p>
<p>For the purposes of remuneration and benefits, directors of the AIT hold the same rank as ambassador and, in Taiwan, are accorded diplomatic privileges in their capacity as directors.</p>
Former Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach will have her wax figure unveiled in the Philippines in March
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/first-filipino-to-enter-madame-tussauds/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/first-filipino-to-enter-madame-tussauds/<p class="p1">The Philippines is about to set another milestone as Pia Wurtzbach becomes the first ever Filipino to have a wax figure in one of the famous Madame Tussauds museums.</p>
<p class="p1">In an <a href="https://www.madametussauds.com/hong-kong/en/latest-news/whats-new/pia-wurtzbach-makes-history-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> first made on September 24, 2018, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong said it had chosen Wurtzbach, Miss Universe 2015 and an HIV/AIDS advocate, as the first Filipino to have a wax figure in its museum. Wurtzbach said in an Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BoFyD-MgYXI/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> that the news was announced on her birthday and her wax figure will be featured in Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.</p>
<p class="p1">This Sunday, Madame Tussauds, along with the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong, Prime Credit Ltd, the Hong Kong Musicians Union, PLDT Smart, Free Bee and Global Alliance Hong Kong held a meet-and-greet event for the Filipino community in Hong Kong with Wurtzbach herself. The event began with performances from Filipino talents in Hong Kong and organizers prepared games and prizes for the audience.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312746" style="width: 690px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312746" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-18-at-1.33.12-PM-e1550468036878.png" alt="" width="690" height="415" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-18-at-1.33.12-PM-e1550468036878.png 690w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-18-at-1.33.12-PM-e1550468036878-300x180.png 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-18-at-1.33.12-PM-e1550468036878-600x360.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Pia Wurtzbach during a meet and greet with the Filipino community in Hong Kong. Photo: Grace Dandan / Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p class="p1">Jenny You, general manager of Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, said having the first Filipino wax figure in the museum had been a long time coming and that it was important to choose someone whose character and impact were truly iconic.</p>
<p class="p1">You said Wurtzbach &#8220;is a true global icon. Not only that, she has gone above and beyond her title and using her platform to bring light to HIV issues as a UNAIDS ambassador. So we definitely chose someone special.”</p>
<p class="p1">Speaking for Philippine Consul Antonio Morales, Deputy Consul Germinia Aguilar-Usudan said Wurtzbach was a proven role model for Filipinos through her career and her wax figure would now give her access to another international platform for representing the Filipino people.</p>
<p class="p1">“We are extremely grateful and proud that a Filipino personality will now be immortalized through a wax figure as part of Madame Tussauds&#8217; collection,” Usadan said.</p>
<p class="p1">The highlight of the afternoon was Wurtzbach’s arrival and meeting members of the Filipino community in Hong Kong. Earlier in the day, Wurtzbach held an Instagram live video where she was seen touring Madame Tussauds Hong Kong. She said her wax figure would be placed besides those of famous actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.</p>
<p class="p1">Wurtzbach said it wasn’t her first time in Hong Kong, as she had visited the city many times. She added that she was a longtime fan of Madame Tussauds and loved taking pictures with the many personalities in the museum.</p>
<p class="p1">“When I realized that I will be a part of this, that I would have my own wax figure, I really can’t believe it and I am very happy,” Wurtzbach said.</p>
<p class="p1">She said the process of making her wax figure was very meticulous and precise. She said the Madame Tussauds team took note of her exact hair and eye color, and had consulted with her dentist in Manila to get her smile just right. She posed for several hours so that the team could take her measurements and pictures. The whole process is to ensure that the wax figure is as accurate as possible.</p>
<p class="p1">“I did not have second thoughts. For them to choose me as the first Filipino to be there [in the museum] and in Hong Kong of all places, I am very grateful,” she said.</p>
<p class="p1">Wurtzbach’s wax figure will first be unveiled in the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines, in March before it makes its way home to Madame Tussauds Hong Kong in April, where it will be open for public viewing.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9xMuO-5Gf48?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
Production and sales recorded 2.365 million and 2.367 million, respectively, down 12.1% and 15.8%
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/nations-auto-market-continues-to-cool/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/nations-auto-market-continues-to-cool/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s auto market continued its apparent downward trend in January, after witnessing its first negative growth in 2018, <a href="https://www.yicai.com/news/100118654.html"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The production and sales of automobile recorded 2.365 million and 2.367 million, respectively, down 12.1% and 15.8% from a year earlier, data released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Monday showed.</p>
<p class="p1">Of that, the sales of passenger cars fell for the seventh consecutive month by 17.7% year-on-year, the largest fall in seven years.</p>
<p class="p1">However, new energy cars are still performing well, bucking the overall trend. The production and sales of new energy vehicles were 91,000 and 96,000 in January, respectively, an increase of 113% and 138%.</p>
<p class="p1">There are also seasonal factors, such as consumers tending to delay car purchases around the Chinese New Year Holiday. The auto market will likely continue to decline in February, said Xu Haidong, assistant to the secretary general of CAAM.</p>
Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou and Shenzhen positioned as core engines for regional development
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-unveils-plan-for-developing-greater-bay-area/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-unveils-plan-for-developing-greater-bay-area/<p class="p1">The State Council has issued a guideline for developing a “Greater Bay Area” around the Pearl River Delta in south China, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3002801">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will be positioned as the core engines for the regional development of the bay area, according to the guideline.</p>
<p class="p1">Hong Kong must also consolidate and enhance its status of international finance, shipping and trade centres, international aviation hubs, global offshore (RMB) business as well as an international asset and risk management centre.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, Macau should focus on building a world tourism and leisure centre.</p>
<p class="p1">Guangzhou must enhance the functions of being an international business and trade centre and comprehensive transportation hub, while upgrading its science and technology education and cultural services.</p>
<p class="p1">And Shenzhen must strive to become an innovative and creative city with world influence.</p>
After logging in to a DIS network, it takes less than 20 seconds to download a 2GB HD movie
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shanghais-railway-station-first-with-5g/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shanghais-railway-station-first-with-5g/<p class="p1">China Mobile Shanghai has officially started 5G network construction at Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai, which is expected to be the world&#8217;s first railway station equipped with a 5G digital indoor system, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3002488">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">It is hoped to complete the depth coverage of the 5G network in 2019.</p>
<p class="p1">The 5G DIS technology can achieve a network peak rate of 1.2 Gbps. This means that after logging in to the network supported by DIS, it takes less than 20 seconds to download a 2GB HD movie.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, the station can control the flow of people more accurately and invest more robots to provide more intelligent services including food delivery and indoor navigation.</p>
<p class="p1">The instalment of 5G DIS is very simple — the gadget hangs on the ceiling like a light, and it only needs to be screwed down like changing a lightbulb.</p>
<p class="p1">The radius of a 5G DIS is 25 to 30 meters, so the entire Hongqiao Railway Station requires just 1,000 DIS devices.</p>
‘SKY Castle’ casts harsh light on upper-class Koreans’ infatuation with elite colleges, spurs debate
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hit-drama-captures-seouls-savage-school-wars/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hit-drama-captures-seouls-savage-school-wars/<p>In South Korea, the name of the game is education. The stakes? Life and death, or so it would seem.</p>
<p>In a well-known <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGS6lTPm5h4">scene</a> from the television series &#8216;SKY Castle&#8217;, two meticulously made-up, smartly dressed middle-aged women meet in the dark confines of an underground parking garage.</p>
<p>Tension builds as they approach each other with ice-cold glares. After a staredown, one woman viciously assaults the other with a percussive, open-handed smack across the face, and later says: “You’re no teacher&#8230;you’re a murderer!”</p>
<p>The backstory: The woman who said this is a mother who hired a professional to help her child gain admission to the country&#8217;s top university – who she now blames for a friend&#8217;s suicide. Their relationship began to unravel when the mother finds out the woman she hired has a dark past that involves shady dealings and pressure tactics that have ruined families.</p>
<p>&#8216;SKY Castle&#8217;, a television series that runs on cable network JTBC, has won the highest-ever levels of viewership for a cable TV drama in South Korea. It has drawn lurid fascination from huge audiences riveted by its intimate look into the sordid lifestyles of the rich and ambitious, notably as they seek educational advantages for their children.</p>
<p>In the real world, it has sparked a national discussion on the country’s obsession with education and how the right credentials can be a decisive advantage in the tooth-and-nail battle for spots at elite schools and subsequently, well-paid jobs.</p>
<h4><strong>Reaching for the SKY</strong></h4>
<p>&#8216;SKY Castle&#8217; is the name of the upscale apartment complex outside of Seoul where the story takes place, a bastion of privilege and anxiety nestled in the mountainous suburbs that ring the South Korean capital. Within its portals, the wives of the professors of an elite, fictional college battle to win their children the best start in life.</p>
<p>But if the college featured in the drama is fictional, the title of the drama has a meaning that will escape no Korean viewer. “SKY” is the widely used acronym for the names of the three most prestigious universities in the country: Seoul National (S), Korea (K) and Yonsei (Y).</p>
<p>Admission to those three Seoul-based institutions is extraordinarily competitive. South Korea has one of the world’s highest rates of university matriculation, and students break their backs to get into one of those three schools. Many of the large companies that dominate the South Korean economy recruit exclusively from SKY schools. Graduating from one of them means lifetime membership in powerful alumni networks that are known to grant favors via promotions and the awarding of business contracts.</p>
<p>For the tigerish mothers who occupy most of the screen time on &#8216;SKY Castle&#8217;, their kids’ education is not just an investment in their future, but the primary life mission for women who devote themselves to raising children while their husbands work.</p>
<p>“All moms feel so much pressure to operate their children&#8217;s education successfully, but particularly for those women who are full-time moms, their children&#8217;s academic achievement is the measurement of their success in life,” said Woo Mi-seong, a professor of Theatre and Drama at the elite Yonsei University. “SKY Castle&#8217;s popularity tells a lot about South Korean people&#8217;s collective desire, insecurity, and anxiety.”</p>
<h4><strong>Educational warfare</strong></h4>
<p>The show’s popularity has even spurred South Korea’s <a href="http://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201901241174083895">Education Ministry</a> to convene meetings with related government bodies to plan investigations aimed at rooting out illegal private tutoring and consulting businesses, like those depicted in &#8216;SKY Castle&#8217;.</p>
<p>For some South Koreans, the educational bloodsport depicted in &#8216;SKY Castle&#8217; is too stressful to bear as recreational viewing, particularly for people who have spent their lives in settings similar to those depicted on the screen.</p>
<p>Park Ju-won, a 25-year-old South Korean journalist based in Hong Kong, can’t bring herself to watch the show.</p>
<p>“It would make me too sad,” she said. “This obsession with top schools, I grew up with it, it’s so traumatizing, and this sleazy drama may be entertaining for others but for me for it’s real.”</p>
<p>“I’ve seen how competitive moms and kids can get growing up in Korea. I’ve seen borderline illegal activities by kids and their parents trying to get to top schools. It’s sad to see what it takes to get to the top echelon of society,” Park added.</p>
<p>Those legally, not to mention morally, questionable activities included paying ghostwriters to craft fabricated college application essays, and parents making large payments to unlicensed brokers and consultants, Park said.</p>
<h4><strong>Life imitates art</strong></h4>
<p>Some viewers argue that the show, and the widespread fascination with it, are illustrations of how deeply educational fever has penetrated the marrow of South Korean society.</p>
<p>“Over the past 30 years, the competitive education culture has spread from Gangnam around the country, with society being afflicted by a crazy evil,” artist and social critic Lee Jin-joo wrote in a recent <a href="http://www.eroun.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=4086">column</a>.</p>
<p>But not everyone is convinced that the appeal of “SKY Castle” is rooted in it being an accurate reflection of South Korean society.</p>
<p>“It’s a kind of fantasy about the upper class, and it’s based on stereotypes,” said Choi Ji-eun, a 26-year-old journalist based in Seoul who graduated from one of the most prestigious high schools in Seoul before attending university overseas. “The majority of the people who see this show have no experience with such an intense kind of reality. It is a minority of students and families who send their kids to these kinds of schools or pressure them like this. The real upper-class just send their kids to universities abroad.”</p>
<p>There is also a real discussion going on about the extent to which &#8216;SKY Castle&#8217;, as a work of art, imitates life, and how much real life has come to mimic the fictional stories on the show.</p>
<p>Local media have reported that since the show hit airwaves, business has boomed for private education consultants, and sales of an item called a “study cube” have increased. The cubes are individual booths where students can work in total seclusion and are meant to shut out distractions. On the show, they were presented as an extreme measure the families take to push their kids to focus on school work. At least some South Korean families appear to have taken them as a helpful cue.</p>
<p>But the lived reality in South Korea is not all rising inequality and competition. The left-leaning administration of President Moon Jae-in is attempting to ease inequality and <a href="https://english1.president.go.kr/dn/5af107425ff0d">increase state support</a> for public schools in an effort to reduce families’ expenditure on private education.</p>
<h4><strong>A shifting paradigm</strong></h4>
<p>According to Yuh Ji-yeon, a professor of History and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University, those efforts have not yet made major progress, but some families are changing their approach to educating their kids.</p>
<p>“For at least the past 12 years, the government has tried to restructure some aspects of the education system to lessen the competition. It hasn’t been successful, because a certain strata of society is still engaged in the competition. But another part of the society has decided the competition is too much, so they’ve bowed out and turned to other things,” Yuh said.</p>
<p>Alongside the &#8216;SKY Castle&#8217; phenomenon, what also appears to be happening, albeit on a small level, is a broadening of how South Koreans define success. More people are now accepting that there is no shame in pursuing a life not characterized by conventional notions of status.</p>
<p>“Some families are wealthy enough to do all the expensive tutoring but choose not to,” Yuh said. “Other families have their kids do other things, become successful in other ways. Some of them become poets or musicians or activists.”</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Influential economist Wu Jinglian warns again of the dangers of a state-controlled economy
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/top-reformer-highlights-chinas-growth-dilemma/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/top-reformer-highlights-chinas-growth-dilemma/<p class="p1">Wu Jinglian is regarded as China’s most celebrated economist. At the ripe old age of 89, he is considered the “spiritual leader” of the pro-market reform camp.</p>
<p class="p1">Last month, in a video address delivered at a seminar run by the liberal think tank, the Hongfan Institute of Legal and Economic Studies, he warned of the dangers of “crony capitalism.”</p>
<p class="p1">“It’s inconsistent with our reforms,” he said in <a href="https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/2182918/chinese-pro-market-economist-wu-jinglian-warns-state">a 20-minute speech</a>. “We have made it clear that we will pursue a market economy … rather than state control of the national economy.”</p>
<p class="p1">His comments and the remarks he made at the annual meeting of the <a href="http://www.50forum.org.cn/home/english/index.html">Chinese Economist 50 Forum</a> in Beijing at the weekend were not lost on a new breed of reformers.</p>
<p class="p1">In response to large-scale monetary easing to kickstart the world’s second-largest economy, he sounded a note of caution.</p>
<p class="p1">“If the two are compatible, in theory, economic policies should not be changed,” Wu, who is still closely linked to the influential <a href="http://en.drc.gov.cn/">State Council’s Development and Research Center</a>, said.</p>
<p class="p1">“[But] in the past several years, we have used demand-boosting policies such as monetary injection to increase the actual growth and make it higher than the potential growth.”</p>
<p class="p1">His views were significant as they came just 24 hours after the latest round of trade talks between China and the United States concluded in Beijing.</p>
<p class="p1">They are due to resume in Washington later this week and that was probably why Forum co-founder and <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/economic-chill-hits-china-as-trade-talks-continue/">Vice-Premier Liu He</a> was absent from the AGM at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.</p>
<p class="p1">Liu has always been a fan of “Market Wu,” as he is known among China’s academia, and his calls for less state intervention will not be lost on the pro-reformists.</p>
<blockquote><p>Additional tariffs on Chinese imports worth at least US$200 billion could be rolled out if Washington and Beijing fail to reach an agreement by then.</p></blockquote>
<p class="p1">Again, the timing was apt with US President Donald Trump reiterating that he could extend the March 1 deadline in a bid to hammer out a deal.</p>
<p class="p1">Additional tariffs on Chinese imports worth at least US$200 billion could be rolled out if Washington and Beijing fail to reach an agreement by then.</p>
<p class="p1">Since the economy was already <a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2019/01/data-dump-illustrates-chinas-economic-challenges/">in a precarious position</a> before being engulfed by trade war fallout, resolving the dispute has become a priority.</p>
<p class="p1">Last month, <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/">the National Bureau of Statistics</a> announced that GDP growth for 2018 slowed to what at first glance appeared a robust 6.6%. In reality, this was the slowest pace in nearly 30 years as manufacturing stalled and consumer spending dipped.</p>
<p class="p1">Smartphone shipments also dropped while car sales plunged 5.8% last year to 22.35 million vehicles, which was the first annual decline since 1990.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, the first real snapshot of 2019 came last week when <a href="http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/">the Ministry of Commerce</a> and the statistics bureau reported that sales growth fell to its lowest levels for eight years during the Chinese New Year festive period.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;The medium- to long-term accumulated contradictions and risks throughout economic development are going to become more prominent in 2019,&#8221; Wang Bin, a Ministry of Commerce official, told a media briefing. &#8220;The pressure facing the consumer market will increase and consumption growth is very likely to slow further.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">In the past, Beijing has reverted to a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/data-dump-illustrates-chinas-economic-challenges/">massive program of spending</a>, usually in state-run projects. A scaled-down version has been wheeled out this time along with tax cuts, and funding for small- and medium-sized enterprises.</p>
<p class="p1">During the past three years, the sector has been starved of investment with bankruptcies climbing in the last six months, fueling unemployment fears.</p>
<p class="p1">How this will affect the constant pledges on further reforms resemble a riddle contained in a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. But probably not to <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/wu-jinglian">“Market Wu.”</a></p>
https://youtu.be/ezZN4gER7UE, 63
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-arabia-to-invest-20bn-in-pakistan-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-arabia-to-invest-20bn-in-pakistan-2/Netizens laud construction worker’s after videos of his dance moves go viral
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/construction-worker-now-a-breakdancing-star/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/construction-worker-now-a-breakdancing-star/<p>A construction worker made the rounds on the Internet in China after a video of him breakdancing went viral.</p>
<p>The dancer, known as “Breakdancing Kai Kai” works as a construction worker and hails from Guiyang city in Guizhou. “Kai” often posts videos of himself dancing but never truly gained momentum until a video of him breakdancing at a construction site in full construction gear took the internet by storm.</p>
<p>Netizens were more than impressed, with some claiming that “Kai” can easily give a number of famous artists a run for their money. Others said that a brilliant dancer like the one in the video is shackled by the reality of making money and that it would be a waste for him to not be a professional dancer.</p>
<p>“Kai” has now brought in more than 50,000 followers on a local social media platform since the video went viral.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KXPZs8npfvQ" width="540" height="320" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z8lG1Tmq4L0" width="540" height="320" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lXGgiiTB3eY" width="540" height="320" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
Millions wonder if focus on Chinese model’s freckles was done to insult their country
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/zaras-natural-look-ad-stirs-debate-in-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/zaras-natural-look-ad-stirs-debate-in-china/<p>Chinese consumers are known to have hearts as fragile as glass. Months after the allegedly &#8220;racist&#8221; D&amp;G ad, Zara was involved in a similar controversy that almost killed its <a href="https://www.weibo.com/1744769622/HgOh25GNF?from=page_1006061744769622_profile&amp;wvr=6&amp;mod=weibotime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latest ad campaign</a>.</p>
<p>But a couple of mainland mouthpieces backed up The Spanish fashion brand and told the Chinese not to be too sensitive.</p>
<p>At issue was China’s top model Li Jingwen, the public face of Zara’s latest cosmetics campaign”Beauty is here”, that featured the freckles on the model&#8217;s face.</p>
<p>But the ad drew some angry comments online after its launch on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, last Friday. Many questioned why Zara would pick a Chinese girl with freckles on her face.</p>
<p>Was it &#8220;another&#8221; attempt to defame the Chinese? Or is it just a natural look?</p>
<p>So, the hashtag #Zara has attracted 460 million people to read the debate.</p>
<p>In a statement, Zara said it meant no harm in the ad. The photos of the model were taken in an all-natural way without any software manipulation, it said, and the reactions may just be a different outlook in regard to aesthetics.</p>
<p>Both the <em>China Daily</em> and <em>China Youth</em> joined in the chorus in support of Zara.</p>
<p><em>China Daily</em> said it could be understandable that those complaining about Zara&#8217;s new ad did so to prevent the nation&#8217;s image from being hurt.</p>
<p>“However, their deeds show over-sensitivity and a lack of cultural confidence,&#8221; the paper said. &#8220;It shows they are so afraid of being hurt that they tend to take a defensive gesture against any move they do not understand.</p>
<p>“Cultural confidence is just being promoted by the leadership of this country, and tolerance is an essential part of it. Only when we learn to tolerate each other in terms of aesthetic, will cultural confidence be owned by everyone.”</p>
<p><em>China Youth,</em> meanwhile, said the topic of insulting China should not be abused, but those who criticized Li Jingwen had indeed insulted their the fellow Chinese.</p>
<p>Zara is luckier than fellow competitor Dolce &amp; Gabbana, which took a beating over its controversial ad featuring a Chinese model in a red D&amp;G dress who use chopsticks to eat pizza and spaghetti.</p>
<p>Due to overwhelming critical, D&amp;G had to cancel its Shanghai fashion show and it is yet to win back the hearts of Chinese consumers.</p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/12/article/dolce-gabbana-chopstick-snafu-a-warning-to-global-brands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dolce &amp; Gabbana chopstick snafu a warning to global brands</a></p>
The Filipina says she was mistreated by numerous employers
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rescue-hopes-for-abused-domestic-worker/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rescue-hopes-for-abused-domestic-worker/<p>Philippine authorities are trying to rescue a domestic worker who has claimed she was repeatedly sold by a recruitment agency to other households after being mistreated by an employer, only to suffer the same abuses at their hands.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/balitambayan/pinoyabroad/684975/pinay-worker-sa-saudi-na-binugbog-pinagsamantalahan-at-ibinenta-nagpapasaklolo/story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GMA News</a> said the 38-year-old woman, who started working in Saudi Arabia in 2017 to support her three children, had been taken back by her original employer after she was physically mistreated and her agent began to “take advantage” of her vulnerability by selling her to new employers.</p>
<p class="p1">The unnamed woman said her latest employer had locked her up in a room for a month with little food, and she suffered bruising from physical abuse. Her sister in the Philippines is seeking help in locating her before she is sold to another employer and becomes difficult to trace. The sister said family members had repeatedly contacted her employment recruiter in the Philippines, but the agency had reportedly closed down.</p>
<p class="p1">Hans Leo Cacdac, administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, said the agency was coordinating efforts with the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office to track down the Filipina and rescue her.</p>
The Filipina allegedly posted pictures of his family members online after they had a row
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-had-threatened-to-kill-her-husband/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-had-threatened-to-kill-her-husband/<p class="p1">A Filipino woman has gone on trial in Dubai for allegedly threatening to kill her Yemeni husband after posting pictures of his family members on social media sites and abusing him in a messenger system.</p>
<p>The 34-year-old, who was not named, told police she created the social media accounts and posted “private” pictures after having a dispute with her husband, <a href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/crime-and-courts/wife-threatens-to-kill-man-in-dubai-posts-his-family-pictures-online" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Khaleej Times</a> reported. According to court records she also insulted and threatened her husband on WhatsApp.</p>
<p>A complaint was filed by the 31-year-old husband after he was told by a friend that there were pages in his name on Instagram and Facebook. “I checked both accounts and saw there my family photos and my pictures. I found out later it was the defendant behind it,” he said in court.</p>
<p>Police said the incidents occurred in September and October and the woman was arrested on December 16.</p>
<p class="p1">The wife faces charges in Dubai Court of First Instance of making criminal threats, making verbal abuse and libeling and circulating others’ pictures without their consent via social media.</p>
Giant Wall St bank might not be launching a new currency but it’s digital network will change sector
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/jp-morgans-payment-platform-will-test-ripple/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/jp-morgans-payment-platform-will-test-ripple/<p><span class="s1">Is JP Morgan really launching its own digital currency? Or is it actually launching a blockchain-based transfer platform that will go into direct competition with the Ripple&#8217;s global digital payment network?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">An announcement by the Wall Street banking behemoth, made on Valentine’s Day no less, that it is planning to launch a digital asset &#8220;JPM Coin&#8221; set the fintech media abuzz with speculation. The news was especially intriguing because JP Morgan chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon has in the past made no secret of his <a href="https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/jamie-dimon-vs-bitcoin-vs-jpmorgan-a-timeline-of-tantrums-20190215">outright mistrust</a> of Bitcoin.</span></p>
<p>“You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think the people buying it are really smart,&#8221; said Dimon in September 2017. &#8220;It’s worse than tulip bulbs&#8230;” he said, referencing the 17th Century Dutch tulip mania price bubble. “It’s a fraud, OK?”</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">But last Friday, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/jp-morgan-is-rolling-out-the-first-us-bank-backed-cryptocurrency-to-transform-payments--.html">CNBN ran with a headline that claimed that </a></span>&#8220;JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business&#8221;, things seem to have changed. Or have they?</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">According to the bank, the JPM Coin is being launched to improve digital transaction speeds while also lowering processing costs. In the <a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/news/digital-coin-payments"><span class="s2">official announcement</span></a> last week, JP Morgan&#8217;s digital treasury services and blockchain head, Umar Farooq, explained that when clients send money to each other over its blockchain network, JPM Coins will be transferred and instantaneously redeemed for the equivalent amount of US dollars. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">However, <a href="http://ripple-news.com">Ripple</a> already has a similar and proven solution, which it has been pitching to banks for at least five years. </span><span class="s1">The San Francisco company says it already has over 200 banks and financial institutions on its RippleNet network of partners. </span><span class="s1">So is JP Morgan doing nothing more than going into direct competition with them?</span></p>
<h4>Key differences to Ripple&#8217;s xRapid</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Well, when it comes to the detail, the two products are actually distinctly dissimilar. While JP Morgan&#8217;s coin will, in essence, do the same thing as Ripple’s xRapid system – which uses its own XRP as an intermediary coin instead of a digital dollar – there is a primary difference. XRP is volatile and subject to rapid changes in value while JPM Coin is a &#8220;stablecoin&#8221; that will be pegged to the dollar. </span><span class="s1">Another difference is that Ripple works with multiple currencies and countries where the bank will only use US dollars and the service will only available to its institutional clients.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">For the crypto sector, JP Morgan&#8217;s market entry has, once again, brought the centralization question to the fore. The JP Morgan token is &#8220;centralized.&#8221; This means it is on a private network that is essentially controlled by its owners, as opposed to Bitcoin that is owned by no single entity so can be considered as a &#8220;decentralized&#8221; currency. For the crypto community, this difference is crucial and it means, classically, the JP Morgan is not an actual cryptocurrency. But that difference might be becoming less relevant. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Ripple&#8217;s business has done well by targeting banks and persuading them they need RippleNet&#8217;s fast and low-cost digital transfer services. JP Morgan new product could set a new precedent for banks to start developing their own products, using the Ripple model a framework. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Some industry experts think the new JPM Coin could &#8220;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-14/jpmorgan-s-crypto-experiment-raises-ripple-relevance-question">obliterate</a>&#8221; Ripple.</span><span class="s1"> “This is a huge slap in the face for Ripple,’’ Tom Shaughnessy, principal at New York-based Delphi Digital told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-14/jpmorgan-s-crypto-experiment-raises-ripple-relevance-question"><span class="s2">Bloomberg. </span></a>“Ripple’s target market is cross-border payments and remittances and now JP Morgan’s effort is a direct threat.’’</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ripple’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse, <span data-dobid="hdw">unsurprisingly</span></span><span class="s1">, downplayed the impact and <a href="https://twitter.com/bgarlinghouse/status/1096118363506434048">tweeted</a> that, “as predicted, banks are changing their tune on crypto. But this JPM project misses the point.&#8221; </span><span class="s1">Garlinghouse has always dismissed what he calls <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/case-against-bankcoin-brad-garlinghouse/">&#8220;BankCoins&#8221; </a></span>as &#8220;misguided&#8221; and argues that finance needs an&#8221;independent digital asset&#8221; to create a truly efficient global settlement system, which he, of course, says already exists with Ripple.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no doubt Ripple has made huge inroads in <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/631af8cc-47cc-11e8-8c77-ff51caedcde6">challenging </a>the 45-year-old SWIFT interbank messaging service that is run by the world&#8217;s leading banks and currently processes more than half of the world’s high-value cross-border transactions. But will it manage to survive direct competition from the<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/jp-morgan-kingpin-wall-street.asp"> King Pin </a>of Wall Street?</p>
Death of a heartthrob actor at defense training drill sparks an uproar over military accountability amid a rash of similar casualties
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/conscript-deaths-making-political-waves-in-singapore/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/conscript-deaths-making-political-waves-in-singapore/<p>When actor Aloysius Pang died last month after sustaining serious injuries during a military training exercise, Singaporeans responded with an outpouring of grief. Family, friends and fans mourned the loss of the 28-year-old Chinese-language film and television star, whose passing is the latest in a recent spate of military training fatalities for the island-nation.</p>
<p>Tragedy struck when Pang, an armament technician with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), was crushed while carrying out repair works inside the cabin of a self-propelled howitzer, a self-propelled artillery gun. Despite a number of surgeries to treat his injuries, the young conscript died four days later in hospital on January 23.</p>
<p>The incident dominated local headlines and struck a chord with the Mandarin-speaking community, an important voting bloc for the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). Chief of Defense Force Melvyn Ong addressed the tragedy at a press conference and promised things would not be “business as usual” after Pang’s death.</p>
<p>Aiming to reassure the public, he announced a halt to all high-risk training activities as well as measures to reduce the pace and duration of training across the SAF for safety reviews. Singapore’s Ministry of Defense (Mindef) also said it would convene an independent Committee of Inquiry (COI) to investigate the incident.</p>
<p>Pang wrote that he was “off to serve our country” in his final Instagram post after earlier sharing news that he would be traveling to New Zealand for compulsory reservist training with the SAF. (The island nation holds military exercises in other countries.) Male Singapore citizens are required to undergo two years of National Service – known as NS – upon turning 18 and are also called upon for reservist duties in subsequent years.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312838" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312838" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Singapore-Aloysius-Pang-Facebook.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1170" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Instagram page managed by Aloysius Pang&#8217;s family. Photo: Instagram</figcaption></figure>
<p>Safety lapses and accountability for NS training-related deaths were a key focus of discussion when Singapore’s Parliament convened earlier this month. Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen delivered a ministerial statement apologizing for the loss of servicemen and vowed to “make things right” by probing the circumstances that lead to Pang’s death.</p>
<p>The late actor was the fourth national servicemen to be killed during training-related incidents in the last 18 months, a figure that has unnerved fellow conscripts and parents with children who serve in the armed forces. Five other servicemen have died during the same period either in accidents or as a result of suicide or unnatural causes.</p>
<p>Ng vowed to strengthen the SAF’s safety systems to strive for “zero training deaths” and pointed out that there no training deaths occurred between 2013 to 2016. He also laid out new measures to conduct audits on safety practices and promised that commanders and servicemen would be held accountable if wrongdoing occurs.</p>
<p>When Pritam Singh, chief of the opposition Workers’ Party (WP), addressed Parliament, he renewed his party’s calls for a review of the Government Proceedings Act, which protects Mindef and members of the armed forces from being subject to civil negligence suits for deaths and injuries that occur during military duty, though not against criminal proceedings.</p>
<p>Singh argued that greater accountability could be achieved by creating a “specific carve-out” where civil suits could be brought against commanders who willfully disregard safety. Under Singapore law, the Attorney General&#8217;s Chambers and Mindef have complete discretion in bringing criminal charges or court-martial proceedings against errant servicemen.</p>
<p>Ng has defended the current law on the grounds that it gives SAF commanders the confidence to train realistically and retain operational effectiveness. He has described the law as ensuring &#8220;the efficiency, discipline, effectiveness and decisiveness of the armed forces in both training and operations, without being burdened by the prospect of legal action.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_312843" style="width: 1576px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-312843 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Singapore-Ng-Eng-Hen-Minister-of-Defense-Singapore-Gov-Website-e1550476881261.jpg" alt="" width="1576" height="992" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Singapore-Ng-Eng-Hen-Minister-of-Defense-Singapore-Gov-Website-e1550476881261.jpg 1576w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Singapore-Ng-Eng-Hen-Minister-of-Defense-Singapore-Gov-Website-e1550476881261-768x483.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Singapore-Ng-Eng-Hen-Minister-of-Defense-Singapore-Gov-Website-e1550476881261-1568x987.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1576px) 100vw, 1576px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen in a file photo. Photo: Singapore Government</figcaption></figure>
<p>There is strong public support for the SAF among Singapore’s citizenry, the majority of whom accept a conscription-based military system as a guarantor of national sovereignty and a necessary deterrent against terrorism and foreign aggression, especially as a hedge against the strategic vulnerability of Singapore’s small size.</p>
<p>Beyond defense, conscription is touted as a rite of passage for Singaporean males and a means of strengthening the cohesiveness of national identity. Analysts believe these factors help to explain why Singapore has not experienced the same degree of pushback against the conscript system as seen elsewhere in Asia, such as in South Korea and Taiwan.</p>
<p>In the wake of Pang’s death, however, news blogs and netizens questioned Singapore’s culture of accountability with reference to the resignations of South Korea’s Army Chief of Staff General Kwon Oh-Seong in 2014 and Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu in 2013 following public outrage over conscript deaths in those countries.</p>
<p>Ng, when asked by Dennis Tan, a non-constituency parliamentarian, whether the government would require a senior officer to “take responsibility” for the recent training deaths, he replied: “If senior leadership has to go because they have been involved, or have been derelict, then I don&#8217;t think our population will stand for that.”</p>
<p>“If (an independent review) decides that a change of the most senior leadership makes a difference… it is up to them to recommend,” said the defense minister, who added that Mindef and the SAF were concerned with getting “the whole system moving, and making sure that the effect is felt on the ground, rather than posturing or politicking.”</p>
<p>The Singapore government “will most likely absolve these commanders of all responsibilities for these accidents, although there might probably be some significant measures taken to ensure that future lapses do not occur,” said Felix Tan, an associate lecturer with SIM Global Education in Singapore.</p>
<p>“I do think that Singaporeans are frustrated by such incidents, but they also do realize that there is a strong need for good leadership within Mindef,” he said. “What Singaporeans are expecting is for these leaders to take responsibility for their oversight and failure of their own leadership in ensuring safety protocols during training.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_163594" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-163594 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Singapore-Armed-Forces-Changi-Airport-October-4-2017-e1550477030878.jpg" alt="Armed police and soldiers patrol Changi Airport's Terminal 2 in Singapore on October 4, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Edgar Su" width="1600" height="1080" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Singapore-Armed-Forces-Changi-Airport-October-4-2017-e1550477030878.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Singapore-Armed-Forces-Changi-Airport-October-4-2017-e1550477030878-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Singapore-Armed-Forces-Changi-Airport-October-4-2017-e1550477030878-1568x1058.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Armed soldiers patrol Changi Airport&#8217;s Terminal 2 in Singapore on October 4, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Edgar Su</figcaption></figure>
<p>An NS serviceman with knowledge of the SAF’s artillery training exercises in New Zealand told Asia Times that rigorous performance expectations placed on serviceman by their commanders often results in “improvised procedures” being taken to adhere to “result-oriented constraints” in which safety protocols are sometimes loosely followed.</p>
<p>According to the serviceman, failure to achieve certain result-oriented standards sees conscripts subjected to “informal, derogatory punishments” which pressure them to cursorily complete tasks often without following safety protocols to the letter, in order to meet the expectations and directives of their commanders.</p>
<p>Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University (SMU) told Asia Times that while the spate of conscript training deaths has dented public confidence in military training safety, it has not undermined public confidence in National Service as an institution.</p>
<p>“What has happened in the last 18 months is, of course, a grave concern which will have to be tackled resolutely. There is a sufficient reservoir of trust and confidence, but it cannot be taken granted that this situation will prevail,” he said. “If things don&#8217;t improve, we can be sure that some will express their concern and unhappiness through the ballot box.”</p>
<p>“I believe there are already stringent measures in place holding individual commanders responsible for safety breaches. That said, these policies are a black box and are not publicized in detail,” said Ho Shu Huang, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.</p>
<p>“This invariably results in speculation of whether a system is actually applied in practice,” he said. “A more helpful discussion on safety shouldn’t just focus on preventing any accidents, but also on risk appetite and an accepted awareness that even the best safety systems can be short-circuited by a negligent individual.”</p>
Panels can reduce inhalable particulates to safe levels in less than a minute
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/smart-window-panels-can-purify-indoor-air/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/smart-window-panels-can-purify-indoor-air/<p>Chinese scientists have developed novel smart window panels that can adjust light intensity of an indoor environment and effectively capture and absorb fine suspended particulates in polluted air.</p>
<p>Xinhua said the new system had the potential to help clean filthy air that chokes people, even when they are indoors.</p>
<p>The mechanism behind these panels is a simple solution-based process in which nanowire-nylon material electrodes, which are flexible and transparent, can capture atmospheric aerosol particles including those with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5).</p>
<p>Engineers at the Hefei-based University of Science and Technology of China said the nanowire-nylon mesh could be a high-efficiency filter, removing PM2.5 by 99.65% and reducing the density of harmful, inhalable particulates from 248 micrograms per cubic meter to 32.9, a safe level, in less than a minute.</p>
<figure id="attachment_313006" style="width: 375px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-313006" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1-s2.0-S2589004219300148-fx1.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="375" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1-s2.0-S2589004219300148-fx1.jpg 375w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1-s2.0-S2589004219300148-fx1-100x100.jpg 100w" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>They also say that the Ag-nylon mesh, coated with thermochromic dye, can adjust the indoor light intensity and the electrodes can be used as an ideal intelligent thermochromic smart panel to display texts and graphics.</p>
<p>It requires only 100 yuan (US$15) and 20 minutes to install a 7.5-square-meter Ag-nylon mesh, which can be cleaned and reused by soaking it in ethanol for 20 minutes.</p>
It was the Philippine president’s second visit without an official announcement in less than five months
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/duterte-visits-hk-for-partners-birthday/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/duterte-visits-hk-for-partners-birthday/<p>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was spotted shopping in Hong Kong on Saturday night during an unannounced trip to the city. It was his second visit without an official announcement in less than five months, Sing Pao reported.</p>
<p>At 6pm on Saturday, <a href="https://cdn.hk01.com/di/media/images/2447618/org/74e8f57b9b2695b022c27559ceb4b943.jpg/ZxvzQP5V35lf56kYy0qyq8onNNgrB4r0haOdKYWjnSk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Duterte and his family</a>, together with bodyguards, were spotted shopping in UNIQLO at the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island.</p>
<p>The spokesman for the Philippine presidential office, Salvador Panelo, said Duterte was in Hong Kong to celebrate the birthday of his partner Honeylet Avanceña, who turned 49 on Sunday.</p>
<p>Christopher Go, a former aide of Duterte, said <a href="https://www.facebook.com/News5Everywhere/posts/1479501732206576" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the president arranged the trip on the request of their daughter Kitty</a>, adding that the family had done that before when he was the mayor of Davao City.</p>
<p>“The weekend getaway is for rest and recreation,” Go said in a statement.</p>
<p>The family also had a birthday dinner in a Chinese restaurant.</p>
<p>Two Hong Kong women recognized Duterte and asked for a photo, Sing Tao Daily reported.</p>
<p>Duterte&#8217;s family reportedly arrived on Friday evening and were scheduled to fly home on Sunday.</p>
<p>The Philippine president and his family paid an unannounced trip to Hong Kong in early October last year and were spotted shopping in the same place in Causeway Bay.</p>
Missile facilities and the National Security Bureau compound are among sites revealed in 3D renderings
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/google-maps-exposes-taiwans-military-secrets/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/google-maps-exposes-taiwans-military-secrets/<p>Netizens soon discovered a number of missile defense batteries and other military installations ringing Taipei after Google Maps expanded its three-dimensional image stock to cover major cities in Taiwan.</p>
<p>This has triggered the island&#8217;s Defense Ministry to ask the US tech giant to obscure images of sensitive sites, according to Taiwanese papers.</p>
<p>The enhanced function, which went partially online late last week, allows users to zoom in and view buildings and other landmarks in a realistic bird&#8217;s eye view in cities including Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Taichung, where satellite and aerial imagery has been digitized and converted into true-to-life 3D renderings.</p>
<p>These Taiwanese cities are the latest addition to Google Maps&#8217; 3D renderings covering major cities across Asia, on top of Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.</p>
<p>For instance, details of streets and building facades and layouts in Taipei’s Shilin district and New Taipei City&#8217;s Sindian district – home to the National Security Bureau compound and several missile defense batteries defending the capital city – are now visible to all users, including those on the mainland, where Google Maps is not banned.</p>
<p>Moreover, the US-made MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile launchers in Taipei&#8217;s Ankeng district, among others, are clearly recognizable on the high-definition open-source map app.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312753" style="width: 870px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-312753" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-18-at-1.43.14-PM.png" alt="" width="870" height="566" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Google Maps&#8217; 3D rendering of the compound of Taiwan&#8217;s National Security Bureau in Taipei&#8217;s Shilin district.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312825" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-312825" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/38bd363c-3108-11e9-80ef-0255f1ad860b_image_hires_041006.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/38bd363c-3108-11e9-80ef-0255f1ad860b_image_hires_041006.jpg 1200w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/38bd363c-3108-11e9-80ef-0255f1ad860b_image_hires_041006-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">MIM-104 Patriot missile launchers at a military base in Taipei.</figcaption></figure>
<p>A source in the military told the Taipei Times that the force had beefed up concealment and camouflage efforts to protect key venues and installations from the prying eyes, but he refused to elaborate further.</p>
<p>The island&#8217;s defense minister, Yen Teh-fa, has also told lawmakers that what you see on a map is not necessarily what you get: A military camp’s layout during peacetime does not indicate its specific tactics and deployment when at war.</p>
<p>He added that agile mobile missile launchers, such as the Patriot and the indigenous Tien Kung III, had been favored over fixed systems, thus intelligence about their location and deployment would be of less significance, as they could easily be relocated.</p>
<p>Other Taiwanese officials revealed that in the past they had asked Google to pull sensitive telemetric images regarding national security and the military, and the US firm was compliant and cooperative most of the time.</p>
<p>In 2016, Taiwan asked Google to blur out part of Taiping Island, aka Itu Aba, a strategically located atoll in the center of the South China Sea occupied by its seamen.</p>
<p>It is also said that in 2012, Taiwan asked Apple to &#8220;wipe out&#8221; a radar base in the northern city of Hsinchu, home to a cutting-edge US-made radar capable of tracking missiles launched as far away as northwestern China&#8217;s Xinjiang region.</p>
<p>It is not the first time that ultra-high-definition imaginary featured by the Google service has ruffled the feathers of a foreign government. Seoul has reportedly demanded that Google blot out the Blue House, the South Korean presidential residence, on its maps and navigation platforms.</p>
Viral video featuring massive snake gain millions of views
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/massive-scrub-python-found-in-australia/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/massive-scrub-python-found-in-australia/<p>An amazingly large scrub python was found in Australia and a video of it has gone viral on the internet.</p>
<p>On February 15, Lea-Ann Kennedy received a shocking surprise when she found the 5.5-meter-long snake at her home at 4:30 am, Cairns Post reported. The snake reportedly weighed about 40 kilograms.</p>
<p>Wildlife rescuers removed the snake from the premises. A video posted on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2296448327291777" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> raked in almost 4 million views and has been shared over 52,000 times.</p>
<p>A local snake catcher said the scrub python had immense strength and was difficult to remove.</p>
<p>The video got a mixed reception from viewers, with some criticizing the way the snake was handled. The snake catcher insisted the snake was not hurt.</p>
<p>The snake was released into the wild.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Do9uvY21DE" width="540" height="320" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe></p>
Illegal boat trips to Australia no longer a bet that refugees can afford or are willing to take
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/refugees-in-indonesia-not-keen-to-risk-boats/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/refugees-in-indonesia-not-keen-to-risk-boats/<p>Asylum seekers from countries in the Middle East are stuck in Indonesia in a state of limbo. More than 13,000 asylum seekers are trying to survive in various parts of the Indonesian archipelago, but they face financial hardship and uncertainty, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/17/refugees-in-indonesia-say-few-would-risk-a-boat-ride-to-australia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p>The medical evacuation law passed in Australia last week could represent a way out, but there may not be many refugees who have the money or are prepared to take that chance.</p>
<p>The medevac legislation will allow refugees detained on Nauru and Manus Island to be taken to Australia if they require medical treatment. Australian PM Scott Morrison, who suffered a major political embarrassment when the bill was passed, claimed that the law will draw a new wave of refugee boats into the country&#8217;s north.</p>
<p>However, many view those remarks as fear-mongering given that Morrison faces an election in a few months that pundits say his government is unlikely to win.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, initial feedback in Indonesia suggests there are not a lot of people prepared to try their luck on boats currently. Hussain Badavi, a 21-year-old Iranian refugee, said the situation is different to six to seven years ago. He said it took US$3,000 to get a boat to Australia between 2012 and 2013 — and the cost has most likely doubled since then.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Sick of false hopes&#8217;</h4>
<p>Refugees were also sick of false hopes in the form of boats. The risk of traveling on the sea and the possibility of being turned back or being stuck in Papua New Guinea was not something the refugees would consider, he said.</p>
<p>In addition, most refugees in Indonesia don&#8217;t have much money. They are barred from seeking employment in the country and put in a long resettlement process, which could take years to end.</p>
<p>The matter came to media attention last week when a father and son from Afghanistan set themselves on fire at a detention center in Sulawesi, as they had reportedly been stuck in the country for 17 years. The son, Sajjad, took part in a failed month-long hunger strike prior to setting himself on fire.</p>
<p>Erfan Dana, another refugee from Afghanistan, said they were tired of waiting and suffering an uncertain future. She listed at least six other refugees who had committed suicide in recent years.</p>
<p>However, there may still be hope for such refugees. Some believe that having stayed in Indonesia for a considerable number of years it may be a safer bet to try to obtain the right to live in Indonesia instead.</p>
A report by the National Cyber Security Center claims that concerns can be minimized, according to sources
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/huawei-spy-threat-can-be-contained-in-the-uk/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/huawei-spy-threat-can-be-contained-in-the-uk/<p class="p1">Huawei has become associated with the dangers of China’s state-backed model when it comes to 5G.</p>
<p class="p1">Australia, New Zealand and the United States have already moved to block the telecom giant from their super-fast networks.</p>
<p class="p1">The United Kingdom was expected to become another key player of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, which also includes Canada, to curb, or even ban, the Chinese group from its planned 5G rollout in the next two years.</p>
<p class="p1">According to sources quoted by the UK media, a new report by <a href="https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/threats">the National Cyber Security Centre</a>, a wing of the UK surveillance and intelligence agency GCHQ, will reveal that the risks posed by Huawei can be contained.</p>
<p class="p1">Previously, the NCSC had been critical of security issues posed by the company’s technology but appears to have softened its stance.</p>
<p class="p1">The US has argued that Huawei could use malign software to spy on 5G networks in other countries. The claim has been denied by the telecom infrastructure and smartphone titan and the Chinese government.</p>
<p class="p1">“The National Cyber Security Centre is committed to the security of UK networks, and we have a unique oversight and understanding of Huawei engineering and cyber-security,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/17/uk-security-chiefs-huawei-risk-in-5g-can-be-contained">an NCSC spokesperson told</a> The Guardian newspaper in the UK.</p>
<p class="p1">“As was made clear in July’s Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre [HCSEC] oversight board, the NCSC has concerns around Huawei’s engineering and security capabilities. We have set out the improvements we expect the company to make. The latest Annual HCSEC report will be published in the near future,” the spokesperson added, without commenting on media reports about the contents of the document.</p>
<h4>5G networks</h4>
<p class="p1">So far, an array of UK mobile operators, such as Vodafone, EE and Three, have been working with Huawei on developing their 5G networks.</p>
<p class="p1">The exception has <a href="https://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/">been BT, the largest provider</a> of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in Britain. The group has already announced it is in the process of removing Huawei equipment from central parts of its existing 3G and 4G mobile operations.</p>
<p class="p1">BT has also made it clear that will it not use the company&#8217;s components in the core of its 5G network.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, the final decision about an outright ban will be made by the British government.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;No decisions have been taken and any suggestion to the contrary is inaccurate,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-digital-culture-media-sport">Department of Culture, Media and Sport</a>, which is heading the review into the future of the telecoms industry, said in a statement.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ju4CBAdTibQ" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">Indeed, the situation has become even more complicated after comments made <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-15/spy-chief-says-outright-huawei-ban-might-not-be-right-for-u-k">Alex Younger, the head of MI6</a>, which is the foreign-intelligence agency in the UK.</p>
<p class="p1">He hinted that banning Huawei might be premature when speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week.</p>
<p class="p1">“There are some practical points about the number of vendors who exist at the moment,” he told the media. “It’s not inherently desirable that we have a monopolistic supplier of any of our critical national infrastructure. We should be aiming for maximum diversity as a matter of good practice.</p>
<p class="p1">“We need to take a principles-based approach to this and the first is around quality,” he continued. “This has got nothing to do with the country of origin … we should be insisting on the highest level of quality in any form of technology platform or service we choose to use and in particular security quality.</p>
<p class="p1">“I’m not pretending I have the answer on this [Huawei]. It’s more complicated than [Huawei being] in or out,” Younger added.</p>
<p class="p1">The Huawei controversy has been raging for the past three months.</p>
<h4>Intense security</h4>
<p class="p1">Created by billionaire businessman Ren Zhengfei, the family-run business has come <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/huawei-starts-stacking-chips-in-global-game-of-technology-roulette/">under intense scrutiny</a> about cybersecurity and perceived links to Beijing.</p>
<p class="p1">Last month, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/video/acting-attorney-general-whitaker-announces-national-security-related-criminal-charges">United States Justice Department</a> announced sweeping charges against the group, including bank fraud, obstruction of justice and technology theft.</p>
<p class="p1">Key accusations revolve around violations of US sanctions on Iran, an allegation which has been leveled against <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/us-accused-of-bullying-behavior-in-meng-case/">Chief Financial Officer Meng Wenzhou</a>, the daughter of Ren.</p>
<p class="p1">She was arrested in Vancouver on December 1 and could face extradition to the US.</p>
<p class="p1">Meng and the company have categorically denied the charges.</p>
<p class="p1">“[They] expose Huawei&#8217;s brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace,&#8221; Christopher Wray, the director of the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/chinese-telecom-firm-huawei-indicted-012819">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a>, said at the end of January.</p>
<p class="p1">Yet for Beijing, the Huawei row is just part of a broader plan by Washington to contain China’s rise as a major technological power.</p>
<p class="p1">Indeed, <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1633464.shtml">the Ministry of Foreign Affairs</a> came out with a robust response last month after accusing the US of using &#8220;state power to discredit and crack down on specific Chinese companies.”</p>
<p class="p1">“[This is] an attempt to strangle the enterprises&#8217; legitimate and legal operations,” Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a statement. “There are strong political motivations and political manipulations behind the actions.”</p>
<p class="p1">Yet these latest reports from the UK will offer Huawei a glimmer of hope as it bids to expand its already substantial global footprint.</p>
Islamabad looks unlikely to act against Jaish-e-Mohammad, says local man committed last week’s deadly attack
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-unlikely-to-act-against-terror-group/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-unlikely-to-act-against-terror-group/<p>Pakistan has no plan to take any action against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the terrorist group that took responsibility for the car-bomb attack in Kashmir last week, according to government sources in Islamabad. The <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/?_=7055442">bombing</a> claimed the lives of 42 Indian police officers.</p>
<p>“It was a local [man] from Indian-occupied Kashmir who launched the attack. Reports also confirm that even the explosives were locally obtained. We have no reason to take any action,” a senior Pakistani official told <em>Asia Times</em>.</p>
<p>India accused Pakistan of harboring the terror group behind the bombing after the suicide attack occurred in Pulwama district of Indian-administered Kashmir last Thursday. New Delhi also retracted Pakistan&#8217;s ‘Most Favored Nation’ status, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning Islamabad of a ‘strong response’.</p>
<p>The government of Imran Khan called the bombing “a matter of grave concern”, but it has denied all accusations and asked India not to push any claims “without investigation”. On Sunday, following a continued surge in allegations from New Delhi, the Foreign Office issued another statement urging India to review intelligence and security lapses.</p>
<h4>Concern over Beijing&#8217;s response</h4>
<p>But, insiders confirmed that Islamabad was apprehensive about China’s reaction to the attack. It was only after a reaffirmation that Beijing has &#8220;no immediate plan&#8221; to retract its veto over India’s move to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a globally designated terrorist group at the United Nations, that the decision was agreed that &#8220;no action is needed&#8221; on Pakistan’s part.</p>
<p>The lack of response is in contrast to Pakistan’s &#8220;crackdown&#8221; against JeM after an attack on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in 2016, which resulted in Azhar’s &#8220;arrest&#8221; in Bahawalpur in South Punjab. Senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) confirmed that action was taken despite reluctance by military leaders. “<a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/dawn-leaks-reflects-larger-problem-of-pakistan-army-undermining-politicians/story-mJRb2oK4yvKYOnD0ec8LLN.html">The Dawn Leaks</a> revealed that we wanted to take action against these jihadist groups, while the Army leadership opposed it. That is why the military went through all the effort with the help of judiciary to oust Nawaz Sharif, and fabricate an election win by the PTI [Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf]” a PML-N leader said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, diplomatic sources confirmed that China’s reluctance to reconsider its position on Masood Azhar stems from the fact that he has not been directly linked to the Kashmir attack. With Masood Azhar in detention after the Pathankot attack, his family members are believed to have been actively running JeM. Those linked to the Kashmir attack include Azhar’s brothers Ibrahim Athar and Abdul Rauf Asghar – the latter has been leading the outfit in Azhar’s absence, while the former’s son Muhammad Usman was killed by Indian security forces last year.</p>
<p>JeM was founded by Azhar, a former Harkat-ul-Mujahideen member, in 2000, after he was released by India in exchange for passengers on board the hijacked IC 814 Indian Airlines flight in Kandahar. Afghanistan was under control of the Taliban at that time, who facilitated Masood Azhar&#8217;s escape to Pakistan. Many JeM members are said to have got military training from the Taliban. Azhar had been arrested by Indian security forces for his militant activities in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1994.</p>
<p>The group’s first prominent attack was on the Jammu &amp; Kashmir Legislative Assembly in October 2001. Then in December of that year, the group attacked the Indian parliament, resulting in a military standoff between India and Pakistan. Azhar was arrested in Pakistan and JeM declared a ‘terrorist organization’ under General Pervez Musharraf&#8217;s military regime in 2002. This followed the group’s assassination attempt on Musharraf, which had been preceded by JeM kidnapping and beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl. Indian intelligence tipped off Musharraf&#8217;s office when a second attempt was being planned against him by the JeM.</p>
<p>After overlapping with the Taliban, the JeM has launched attacks within Pakistani territory as well. In 2011, the Punjab Police found three JeM operatives – Muhammad Haroon Akbar Khan, Mati-ur-Rahman Arain, and Muhammad Tayyab – were behind attacks across the country, including one on a Pakistan Air Force bus. After Azhar’s detention in 2016, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar formally took over JeM, intelligence sources say. It was Asghar who allegedly masterminded the raid on an army base in Nagrota in southern Kashmir in late 2016.</p>
<h4>Bahawalpur madrassa</h4>
<p>Asghar’s hub, just like Azhar’s, is a large JeM madrassa in Bahawalpur in southern Punjab. Many militants affiliated with the group were arrested from the madrassa in the 2016 crackdown. Pro-jihad banners saying “Jaish-e-Mohammad will return”, with an image of the Red Fort in Delhi, have propped up across Bahawalpur in recent years.</p>
<p>Even so, intelligence sources confirm that Bahawalpur madrassa remains the ‘ideological center’ of JeM, with a majority of its militant training being conducted in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Observers also believe that the Bahawalpur madrassa is not the main militant hub.</p>
<p>“[JeM] draws its strength from Karachi. Mardan is also important. Bahawalpur is very important but not the whole picture. They don’t carry many [militant] activities [in Bahawalpur]. [JeM] has its infrastructure out of its madrassas. To understand them one needs to think beyond madrassas,” security analyst Aoun Sahi told Asia Times.</p>
<p>With the group’s madrassas acting as fronts and funding sources, its proscribed status in Pakistan has meant that it has had to work under various banners. The Al-Rehmat Trust, a charity, is one such front. It was launched by Masood Azhar to support the group&#8217;s operations.</p>
<p>JeM has a publication called <em>Al-Qalam</em>, which largely promotes jihadist literature, specifically targeting Kashmir. Despite Azhar being in military detention, he has continued to write his <em>Al-Qalam</em> column. His sermons are easily accessible across the country as well. Analysts believe that JeM remains a part of the Pakistan Army’s &#8220;mainstreaming&#8221; process, to try to get radical militants to enter politics, as happened with the Hafiz Saeed-linked Allaho Akbar Tehreek (AAT), which had candidates in last year’s general election.</p>
<p>“The [military establishment] wants to internationalize Kashmir along with Afghanistan. And the Kashmir-bound militants are central to the military’s planning,” military scientist Ayesha Siddiqa, author of ‘<em>Military Inc: Inside Pakistan&#8217;s Military Economy</em>’, said.</p>
<p>Senior military leaders believe Pakistan will argue that the &#8220;mainstreaming&#8221; of Islamist groups is to counterbalance the rise of the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has links to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).</p>
<p>Siddiqa says these ambitions mean that no action will be taken against the JeM this time around and maintains that “nothing was actually done” in 2016 either.</p>
The attack in an MTR elevator lasted about 56 seconds and was captured by a surveillance camera
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-beaten-robbed-in-kuala-lumpur/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-beaten-robbed-in-kuala-lumpur/<p>A 48-year-old woman was brutally beaten by a robber inside an elevator at a Mass Rapid Transit station in Cheras district, Kuala Lumpur, on Thursday morning.</p>
<p>At 6:45am at the Taman Mutiara MRT station, the woman entered the elevator alone, then was followed by a man, according to a statement issued by the head of the Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department on Friday, the New Straits Times reported.</p>
<p>The incident lasted about 56 seconds and was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mycrimewatch/videos/538894673266295/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">captured</a> by a surveillance camera. The man swung his arm at the woman when the doors closed, causing her to fall to the floor.</p>
<p>He continued to punch her and eventually snatched her handbag while grabbing her hair.</p>
<p>When the elevator door opened, he paused to press the close-doors button before continuing to hit the victim with both fists and swung her handbag at her several times.</p>
<p>The man ran off after the elevator opened for the third time, fetching the victim’s purse, which contained her identity card, bank cards and 400 ringgit (US$98) in cash. He ditched the handbag on the elevator floor after taking its contents and ran off, leaving the woman with multiple injuries on her body and bruises on her forehead.</p>
<p>Kuala Lumpur police took statements from three witnesses to facilitate their investigation, and appealed to the public for information regarding the suspect, believed to be a local Malaysian man, who was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans at the time of the attack.</p>
One man, 70, had burns, while an elderly woman and a domestic worker suffered smoke inhalation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/three-people-hospitalized-after-fire-in-hk-flat/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/three-people-hospitalized-after-fire-in-hk-flat/<p>Three people were sent to hospital after a fire broke out in an apartment in a public housing estate in Kowloon on Friday. At 8pm, many residents of Lok Tai House in Lok Fu Estate in Lok Fu called Hong Kong police to report <a href="https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20190215/photo/bkn-20190215214008823-0215_00822_001_05p.jpg?20190217043058" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heavy smoke</a> pouring out of an apartment on the sixth floor, Oriental Daily reported.</p>
<p>Firemen arrived and rescued three people from the apartment, including <a href="https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20190215/photo/bkn-20190215214008823-0215_00822_001_03p.jpg?20190217043058" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a 70-year-old man</a> who suffered burns on his face. Paramedics put a protective mask on his face and took him to a hospital.</p>
<p>An 87-year-old Hong Kong woman and a 43-year-old Indonesian domestic worker felt unwell after inhaling too much smoke. They were also sent to hospital.</p>
<p>Around 200 residents of the building, mainly children and elderly people who had difficulties walking, were evacuated with police assistance.</p>
<p>Firemen put out the fire in 30 minutes but the apartment was seriously damaged.</p>
<p>After an initial investigation, firefighters said the blaze appeared to have resulted from a cooking mishap. No foul play was involved.</p>
Some 231 migrants held in Taiwan, mostly from Vietnam and Indonesia, got access to health checks
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-detainees-grateful-for-free-checkups/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/migrant-detainees-grateful-for-free-checkups/<p>Taiwan&#8217;s National Immigration Agency and a local charity conducted free medical check-ups and consultations for foreign detainees on Sunday at a new detention center for migrants. The center in Kaohsiung, which has been open for just three months, houses 231 people.</p>
<p>On February 17, dozens of Chinese and western medical practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and interpreters from the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) joined hands to give a range of specialist services to migrants at the Kaohsiung Detention Center, Liberty Times reported.</p>
<p>The 231 detained migrants, most of them from Vietnam and Indonesia, were able to receive specialist family medicine, ophthalmology, internal medicine, surgery, and Chinese medicine.</p>
<p>Examinations for blood pressure and blood glucose levels were also undertaken.</p>
<p>Siti Nurhipayah, 32, said she never expected to be able to receive dental services from Taiwanese authorities despite being arrested and detained for committed an offense.</p>
<p>An official from the Immigration Agency&#8217;s Southern Administration Corps said quite a number of the detainees were tempory residents who suffered emotional distress or some physical illnesses.</p>
<p>Free medical check-ups and consultations were a final blessing from the authorities before these migrants were sent back to their home countries.</p>
Authorities to continue taking steps in eliminating the epidemic
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rabies-outbreaks-in-indonesia-claim-12-lives/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rabies-outbreaks-in-indonesia-claim-12-lives/<p>More than 620 people have caught rabies in Indonesia so far this year, including 12 who died of the disease, authorities in Indonesia have said.</p>
<p>Nadia Tarmizi, director of the Health Ministry, said the low ratio of dogs getting the rabies vaccine was a major factor in the outbreak, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/15/rabies-outbreak-in-indonesia-kills-12-as-stray-dog-culling-begins.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Jakarta Post</a> reported. She said the Agriculture Ministry should be responsible for ensuring that the vaccine is properly given out.</p>
<p>Six deaths were reported in Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara, with three in northern Sumatra and three in Sulawesi. However, the level of deaths is not alarming, given that the country has a population of about 264 million.</p>
<p>Tarmizi said on February 14 that the extent of vaccination coverage for dogs was only about 30%, and 26 provinces were yet to fully eliminate rabies. But West Nusa Tenggara — a province that had been declared rabies-free — was hit hard by the rabies outback. West Nusa Tenggara is east of Bali and includes Lombok and Sumbawa islands.</p>
<p>The head of the Health Ministry’s disease control and prevention, Anung Sugihantono, blamed a rise in the stray dog population and a lack of proper disease control for the problem.</p>
<p>As of now, an emergency status for rabies has been declared in Dompu. Authorities have distributed 2,800 vaccines for the epidemic, with an additional 600 to arrive from Jakarta. More than 1,000 of the 9,000-plus dogs in Dompu had been put down.</p>
<p>Authorities have also set up tight security at the ports that connect Lombok and Sumbawa islands, with dogs not allowed to enter or leave Sumbawa.</p>
The Indonesian former domestic worker was diagnosed after collapsing in their Hong Kong apartment
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/friends-abandon-sex-worker-who-contracts-hiv/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/friends-abandon-sex-worker-who-contracts-hiv/<p>A former Indonesian domestic worker who turned to sex work has shared her story of abandonment by friends in Hong Kong after they learned that she had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.</p>
<p>Mawar, who came to Hong Kong as a domestic worker in 2010 but had overstayed since 2015 after her employment contract was terminated, decided become a sex worker in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island together with some friends, according to a feature story on hongkongnews.com.</p>
<p>To save living costs and be able to send money to their families back home, Mawar and her friends rented an apartment and lived together like siblings.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, she applied as a torture claimant and sought asylum so that she could continue to stay in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>On December 26 last year, Mawar suddenly collapsed inside the apartment that she shared with her friends. She was sent to Ruttonjee Hospital, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia.</p>
<p>She didn’t worry much at first but after two weeks, she had not recovered. Meanwhile, she learned that her German boyfriend had died recently from complications of AIDS.</p>
<p>In mid-January, her doctor told her she had tested positive for the AIDS virus.</p>
<p>Mawar said the pills and the tremendous pain when the doctor took a sample of fluid from her spine were nothing compared with the pain she suffered when her friends abandoned her to the ravages of AIDS.</p>
<p>Mawar said all her friends disappeared suddenly, not even to visit her once.</p>
<p>She has been transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital.</p>
<p>It is understood that her family will soon fly to Hong Kong.</p>
The family could not afford the DNA paternity testing to confirm the children’s legal status
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taiwanese-filipino-children-deprived-of-school/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taiwanese-filipino-children-deprived-of-school/<p>Three Taiwanese-Filipino <a href="https://img.ltn.com.tw/2019/new/feb/17/images/bigPic/600_195.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">children</a> aged between 10 and 13 in Maoli, Taiwan, have been deprived of schooling as their Taiwanese father cannot afford DNA paternity testing that could confirm their legal status and thus eligibility to rights including education.</p>
<p>The father surnamed Chung, who was in an unhappy arranged marriage with a mainland Chinese woman, reportedly left Taiwan to work in the Philippines, where he met his lover Mary, The Liberty Times reported. The couple gave birth to two daughters, now aged 13 and 10, and a son aged 11, and lived a happy life.</p>
<p>In 2014, learning that his elderly mother was terminally ill, Chung returned to Taiwan, and then arranged to bring Mary and their children to join him six months later.</p>
<p>Last April, Chung’s mother passed away, which led to the reappearance of his estranged wife, and finally he was able to divorce her. However, as the three children were born in the Philippines out of wedlock, DNA paternity tests were required to confirm their Taiwanese national status.</p>
<p>As a construction worker in Kaohsiung, Chung earned only NT$1,700 (US$55) per working day, and the family did not have extra savings, so could not meet the cost of the DNA tests, which would be between NT$8,000 and NT$10,000 each.</p>
<p>The eldest daughter reportedly exhibits mild developmental delay, while her brother and sister are very active.</p>
<p>The Department of Education of the Miaoli County Government learned of the family&#8217;s situation and encouraged schools in the neighborhood to offer assistance so that the children can get some education pending their full admission to school. Meanwhile the family is soliciting donations to cover the cost of the DNA tests.</p>
A record six Chinese companies delisted from the ASX in 2018 as sentiment shifts from bull to bear
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/endgame-for-chinese-listings-in-australia/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/endgame-for-chinese-listings-in-australia/<p>It seemed like a golden idea when the first Chinese company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) back in 1993. But more than 25 years later a spate of delistings suggests Chinese corporate capital-raising Down Under has run its course.</p>
<p>A record six Chinese companies were delisted from the ASX in 2018, following on three de-listings in 2017. Although there are still around 40 Chinese companies listed on the Australian bourse, their shares are rarely traded and many of them struggle with reporting and compliance requirements.</p>
<p>New reports said last year’s delistings were motivated by failure to spend funds as outlined in a prospectus, inability to get funds out of China to pay dividends, and using artificial means to obtain the minimum shareholder spread for admittance to the ASX.</p>
<p>China’s tightening of capital controls aimed at stemming a rush of outflows has made it harder for ASX-listed Chinese firms to pay dividends and even their auditors, the reports said.</p>
<p>While there are still many Chinese companies seeking to list on the ASX, many are rejected because they fail to meet tougher listing requirements, even though the ASX is easier to enter than other regional exchanges, including capital-rich Singapore. Notably, there were no new Chinese listings on the ASX in 2018.</p>
<p>Market sentiment around Chinese listings was bullish back in 1993, when the government-linked Guangdong Corporation made its ASX debut after raising a modest A$7.5 million. That began a flood of ASX-encouraged Chinese listings and bold talk of establishing an “Asian Board” with its own index and stocks that could be traded in real-time across more Asian time zones.</p>
<figure id="attachment_65670" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-65670" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chinas-foreign-reserves.jpeg" alt="Chinese 100 yuan banknotes. Photo: Reuters" width="640" height="403" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chinas-foreign-reserves.jpeg 640w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chinas-foreign-reserves-300x189.jpeg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chinas-foreign-reserves-600x378.jpeg 600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chinas-foreign-reserves-580x365.jpeg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese 100 yuan banknotes. Photo: Reuters</figcaption></figure>
<p>“It is the business development strategy of the exchange to attract Asian, particularly Chinese, companies to make primary listings to capture the economic growth in this part of the world,” then ASX business development chief Peter Marks told media back in 1994.</p>
<p>The reality, however, proved a little more sobering: Many of the small and mid-cap companies which had listed with great fanfare on the bourse struggled to inspire much investor interest after they made their ballyhooed debuts.</p>
<p>The situation wasn’t helped by the demise of Melbourne-based Sino Securities, the principal local arranger and underwriter of Chinese listings.</p>
<p>Headed by Hong Kong-born Richard Li (not to be confused with the son of Li Ka-Shing), Sino was the principle driver of many of the early listings in the 1990s. But Li left the firm and it was delisted itself in 2015.</p>
<p>The last Chinese listing was in 2017, when education provider ReTech entered the ASX after raising A$17 million, all of it without local support.</p>
<p>At the time, ReTech’s co-chairman Calvin Cheng blasted Australian investors in the local media, saying they were “blindly biased” against companies with Chinese mainland origins, despite the promise of 30% dividends. The company’s shares opened at A$0.51 in June 2017 and are at A$0.42 today.</p>
<p>The roll call of names which have listed and then exited include not only the original pioneer, Guangdong Corporation, but other seemingly promising companies such as China Dairy Corporation and China Construction Holdings, both of which delisted in 2015 after almost two decades.</p>
<p>While China Construction was linked to the Chinese Ministry of Construction and includes a Singapore government stake, other Chinese privately-held corporates have struggled to win the confidence of local investors, particularly in a market where smaller companies are widely under-researched.</p>
<p>The most recent de-listing was of wellness and health company Traditional Therapy Clinics, which sold itself to investors as having one of the largest chains of clinics in China.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312807" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312807" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Australia-ASX-Stocks-Facebook-1.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1196" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The Australian Stock Exchange has become less receptive to Chinese listings. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>The company was removed from the ASX in December 2018 after failing to file its half-yearly accounts, and has also attracted the attention of corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).</p>
<p>The regulator is taking Traditional Therapy Clinics to court in Australia to have the company wound up, with reports that investor funds may have been improperly diverted.</p>
<p>Not only do Chinese companies have an image problem, with concerns over compliance and governance, but the nature of the market has also changed.</p>
<p>Small retail Australian investors who want exposure to Asia tend to put their money with specialized fund managers or purchase Asian-linked Exchange Traded Securities, an asset class which did not really exist during the first rush of Chinese listings back in the 1990s.</p>
<p>One of the ideas behind attracting Chinese corporates to Australia was to tap the large pension or superannuation funds that were seeking to diversify their portfolios.</p>
<p>The Chinese firms which listed in Australia, however, were too small to get the attention of these larger institutions, which have since been able to invest in offshore markets directly.</p>
<p>The ASX has also given up on its China push and is now angling to attract more foreign listings from Europe, Southeast Asia and the US, among others. The US-China trade war will do little to reverse flagging interest in Chinese shares with rising risk premiums.</p>
<p>All of this means that although Australia and China have never been closer economically and commercially, Chinese corporates have struggled to find a welcome home on the ASX.</p>
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People can collect the subsidy via the Octopus App or at more than 1,800 collection points
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hk-commuters-cash-in-on-fare-subsidy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hk-commuters-cash-in-on-fare-subsidy/<p>Hong Kong commuters on Saturday became eligible for a monthly subsidy of up to HK$300 (US$38) under the government’s Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme.</p>
<p>All commuters who spend more than HK$400 per month using their Octopus card on public transportation, including MTR (Mass Transit Railway), franchised buses, trams, green and designated red minibuses, and ferries can get the subsidy, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported.</p>
<p>The government will give the commuter the equivalent of 25% of the amount spent in excess of HK$400. For example, if a commuter spends $500 a month, she will get a subsidy of $25 (25% of the $100 in excess of $400).</p>
<p>No registration is needed to be eligible for the program. People can collect the subsidy for the previous month via the Octopus App or at more than 1,800 collection points around the city, including MTR stations, Light Rail customer service centers, designated ferry piers, and any 7-Eleven, Circle K or Wellcome outlets from the 16th of each month. The subsidy will be credited to the commuter&#8217;s Octopus card automatically if he or she is qualified to receive it.</p>
<p>The subsidy for each month is valid for collection within the next three months. Hence members of the public can collect the subsidy for January at any time between February 16 and May 15.</p>
<p>The government announced the subsidy early this year as part of an effort to relieve the burden of commuters with high transportation expenses.</p>
<p>Commuters may check their record of public transport expenses and subsidy amount through <a href="https://www.ptfss.gov.hk/en-main.html#/en-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the website of the Subsidy Scheme</a> (www.ptfss.gov.hk), which provides translations in various languages including Indonesian, Hindi, Nepalese, Tagalog, Thai and Urdu, as well as the Octopus App and the hotline of the Subsidy Scheme at 2969 5500.</p>
<p>To encourage commuters to get the subsidy at convenience stores, <a href="https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20190217/20614411" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7-Eleven</a> and Circle-K have offered a HK$10 cash coupon for people who collect the money at their stores before February 27.</p>
<p>However, it was understood that many people who went to 7-Eleven stores failed to get the coupon because of a breakdown of the computer system on Saturday morning, Apple Daily reported. The convenience-store chain said too many people went to their stores in the first 30 minutes after the program kicked off, causing the overload of the computer system. The company advised commuters to keep their receipts so as to get the cash coupons later.</p>
Court told Indonesian worker could not stand the heavy workload but she needed to stay on
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/foreign-carer-jailed-5-weeks-for-hitting-old-man/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/foreign-carer-jailed-5-weeks-for-hitting-old-man/<p>A 39-year-old Indonesian worker was sentenced to five weeks in prison at the West Kowloon Magistrates Court on Friday for assaulting a 90-year-old man in her care.</p>
<p>Defendant Siti Anisah pleaded guilty for two counts of assault on an elderly man, who was confined to a wheelchair and had dementia, after her assault was captured on a surveillance camera, Oriental Daily reported.</p>
<p>The lawyer pleaded for leniency in the court, saying the defendant felt remorse and understood she could not use violence again.</p>
<p>Acting principal magistrate Ada Yim said the defendant was the sole caretaker looking after the old man when the assault happened. According to a report from a probation officer, it was obvious that the defendant could not stand her heavy workload. However, she chose to stay with the job due to financial need.</p>
<p>The magistrate reprimanded the defendant, saying she needed to control her emotion and not release her stress on the old man, as her actions had left him frightened and suffering injuries, Apple Daily reported.</p>
<p>Earlier, the court heard that the old man’s children hired the defendant to take care of their father in an apartment in Shek Lei Estate in Kwai Chung.</p>
<p>The case happened when the mother was sick and in hospital, leaving the elderly man and the defendant at home.</p>
<p>The assault came to light when the children visited their father and found injuries on his face and nose. They then checked surveillance camera footage and found the defendant hit the old man’s face, used a towel to clean his face abruptly and pushed his head.</p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2019/02/indonesian-pleads-guilty-to-assaulting-wheelchair-bound-man-90/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indonesian pleads guilty to assaulting wheelchair-bound man, 90</a></p>
The victim was shot and his family is pleading for the gunman, who is still at large, to surrender
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-americans-body-found-frozen-in-us/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-americans-body-found-frozen-in-us/<p class="p1">A Filipino-American man’s body was found frozen after he was shot in a suburb in Chicago in the United States.</p>
<p class="p1">In a <a href="https://www.dfa.gov.ph/dfa-news/statements-and-advisoriesupdate/19447-bulletin-on-the-death-of-a-filipino-american-in-chicago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Philippine Consulate General in Chicago was in contact with the police after the body of Anthony Del Barrio was found. The police said the death of Del Barrio was a possible homicide.</p>
<p class="p1">“Police said they still have no suspects and have requested the assistance of the public for any information that could help in the investigation of the case,” the DFA said.</p>
<p class="p1">According to media reports, Del Barrio was with a male friend when he was shot on the corner of Oleander Avenue and Greenwood Street in a Chicago suburb between January 19 and 20, <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/02/16/19/dfa-sends-condolences-to-kin-of-fil-am-killed-in-illinois" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABS-CBN News</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Del Barrio’s body was then found frozen on the morning of January 20 in Morton Grove in northern Chicago. A neighbor in the area found his body in between two houses. One of Del Barrio’s siblings said it seemed his body was left outside throughout the night as it was frozen when found.</p>
<p class="p1">The victim&#8217;s sister, named Marilyn, said their family was pleading for the suspect, who is still at large, to come forward and surrender.</p>
<p class="p1">“We just need justice for Anthony. He did not deserve for this to happen to him,” she said.</p>
The woman, who is pregnant, could be jailed for 20 years if found guilty
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-investigated-for-links-to-baby-trade-in-vietnam/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/woman-investigated-for-links-to-baby-trade-in-vietnam/<p>Authorities in Nghe An province in northern Vietnam have launched an investigation into a woman who allegedly enticed a pregnant woman to go to China to sell her baby.</p>
<p>Moong Thi Ly, 32, may be charged with “organizing or coercing other people to flee abroad”, a crime in Vietnam that is punishable by up to 20 years in jail, <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/another-vietnamese-woman-investigated-in-sale-of-newborns-to-china-3881982.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VN Express</a> reported. Ly, who is pregnant, is currently under house arrest.</p>
<p>Ly allegedly persuaded Moon Thi Mui, 24, to cross over to China when she was eight months pregnant and sell her baby to an unknown buyer for an unspecified price. She took the victim to China via the northern border at Mong Cai, Quang Ninh.</p>
<p>Mui, however, was caught in a traffic accident in China on September 20 and ended up in hospital, where she gave birth to a baby boy.</p>
<p>In January, local authorities working with the Hanoi-based NGO Blue Dragon successfully rescued Mui and her son from China. The case led to demands for an investigation into the trafficking of babies into China.</p>
<p>Nghe An has become a hotspot for human trafficking in recent years. At least 27 pregnant women were reported to have traveled to China to sell their babies last year.</p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/01/article/vietnamese-woman-arrested-for-trading-babies-to-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vietnamese woman arrested for trading babies to China</a></p>
The surrender of dozens of drug dealers has failed to fully stem the flow of ‘yaba’ into Bangladesh
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/godfathers-surrender-but-meth-keeps-flowing/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/godfathers-surrender-but-meth-keeps-flowing/<p>Despite the surrender of 102 alleged “godfathers” and their associates in Bangladesh, shipments of methamphetamines, or <em>yaba</em>, from Myanmar keep coming, The Daily Star newspaper reported.</p>
<p>The Bangladesh government has a list of 43 drug traffickers and their family members who have not yet surrendered to the authorities. “A dozen &#8216;yaba&#8217; dealers in Myanmar send &#8216;yaba&#8217; shipments to Bangladesh once they receive orders from these godfathers,” the paper wrote on February 17.</p>
<p>Drugs manufactured in Myanmar enter Bangladesh near Cox’s Bazar in the southeast, a long-time haven for smugglers of all kinds of goods. The Bangladesh government has launched a surrender program under which drug traffickers will not receive any general amnesty but will have to face legal action.</p>
<p>The incentive to surrender is that the consequences could be worse if they remain in the trade. Reports that Dhaka will launch a crackdown similar to the one in the Philippines that saw thousands of alleged dealers killed has sown fear that these &#8216;kingpins&#8217; may face a similar fate.</p>
<p>Ten of those who have surrendered so far were elected local politicians, while 35 were so-called “godfathers” and the rest just dealers. Despite this, the Bangladesh Department of Narcotics Control said that 8,200 pills had been seized in the border town of Teknaf alone over the first 16 days of February.</p>
<p>According to Bangladesh government statistics, there are nearly a million drug addicts in the country and the crisis has reached epidemic proportions. The surrender program is one way in which the authorities are dealing with the problem.</p>
<p>Other recommendations, according to the paper, are to increase vigilance on Rohingya refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar area, while monitoring the transfer of Bangladeshi police with have links to traffickers, and taking action against Myanmar border police suspected to be involved in smuggling.</p>
<p>Bangladesh border officials allege that the Rohingya refugee camps have “turned into a drug zone where clashes are on the rise over money, narcotics and illicit relations” across the border.</p>
Confession from Israeli suspect lead to bust at a rented house in Bavet on the border
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/four-vietnamese-held-in-cambodia-for-drugs/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/four-vietnamese-held-in-cambodia-for-drugs/<p>Four Vietnamese nationals were charged with possession and trafficking of drugs – methamphetamine and ecstasy – in Cambodia last week.</p>
<p>At around 10am on February 14, the Svay Rieng provincial anti-drug police, plus provincial immigration and Bavet city police raided a house rented by the four in Kandal village in Bavet, the <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50578998/four-vietnamese-held-on-drug-charges/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Khmer Times</a> reported.</p>
<p>Major Lim Seng, an officer with the police anti-drug department in Svay Rieng, said the four worked at a Vietnamese-owned casino in Bavet.</p>
<p>The raid came after an Israeli man linked with a drug network was arrested on February 3 at the Vietnamese border near Bavet. The Israeli man confessed and provided information that led to the raid.</p>
<p>The four allegedly sold drugs to guests in casinos and nightclubs on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border.</p>
<p>Authorities confiscated two packages of methamphetamine that weighed nearly half a kilogram, 40 ecstasy pills, a set of scales, five cell-phones and other items.</p>
<p>The four suspects were identified as Hay Voeukhong, 66; Nguven Thileuy, 24; Buoy Thilou, 34, and Troeug Thimai, 23. They are being held in custody while awaiting trial. Based on the amount of drugs found, each could face at least 10 years in jail.</p>
The odd appetite for Japanese bonds indicates that the global economy is seeking safe havens rather than sound returns
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/japanese-bonds-popularity-tell-cautionary-global-tale/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/japanese-bonds-popularity-tell-cautionary-global-tale/<p>Anyone still hoping the global economy will have a decent 2019 isn’t paying attention to Japan’s bond market. <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2019-02-12%2Fboj-cuts-bond-purchases-to-arrest-yield-slide-amid-global-rally&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083683582&amp;sdata=GgYkgyI1eaItetuNRVlf2cKRxYq%2BzI6VO6nHkC5Hkek%3D&amp;reserved=0">Tokyo’s debt</a>, after all, is very much in the news these days. It just reached a record high of 1,100 trillion yen, or about US$10 trillion. That equates to roughly $79,000 for each of Japan’s 127 million residents. And yet investors can’t seem to get enough of the stuff.</p>
<p>Japan’s negative-yielding government bonds have been a surprising, if counter-intuitive, hit. That is particularly true of overseas punters, which officials at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management expect to continue gorging on yen-denominated public debt. And that’s just fine by Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who is now under a bit less pressure to ease.</p>
<p>Yet Japan’s safe-haven halo speaks to the upside-down nature of today’s global economy.</p>
<p>Tokyo has the developed world&#8217;s largest <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsonjapan.com%2Fhtml%2Fnewsdesk%2Farticle%2F124421.php&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083693593&amp;sdata=8Cx8xPymamSOyYtOOnLKb%2BitwXZTIuZZRCD5H2DMIf4%3D&amp;reserved=0">public debt load</a>, deflation, a shrinking population and the same Moody’s credit rating as Estonia. It has the most interventionist central bank among major economies. Japan also is very much in harm’s way if North Korea decides to do more than just test a missile.</p>
<p>And so, the rally in Japanese government bonds is very much a cautionary tale about the months ahead.</p>
<p>An auction of 10-year government debt this month attracted the strongest bids in 13 years. Two days later, a 30-year debt sale was oversubscribed amid optimism about the US Federal Reserve’s dovish pivot. Demand has been so brisk, in fact, that Kuroda’s team is pushing back. On Tuesday, the BOJ reduced <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketwatch.com%2Fstory%2Fjapanese-yields-rebound-after-boj-trims-bond-buying-2019-02-12&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083703592&amp;sdata=093cWhkuspkfpFQunWBoAyP%2BLORBWOXA%2FzJsouxk34c%3D&amp;reserved=0">purchases of bonds</a> for the first time in two months.</p>
<p>Consider it a line in the proverbial sand. Even if downward pressure on yields relieves the BOJ of the need to support a flagging economy, it doesn’t want to lose control of the so-called yield curve. The negligible spread between short- and long-dated Japan government bonds has devastated bank profits, particularly those serving rural customer bases. Though the BOJ recalibrates asset purchases from time to time, the nation’s bankers are aggrieved.</p>
<p>One side effect: Dwindling profits make Japan’s roughly 100 regional institutions less included to lend. That starves the BOJ of the multiplier effect that makes monetary policy so potent.</p>
<p>Yet finding an exit from the zero-interest-rate policy has proved all but impossible. This week, it’s worth noting, marks the <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barrons.com%2Farticles%2Fjapan-dropped-interest-rates-to-zero-20-years-ago-theyre-still-there-51549994899&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083713597&amp;sdata=ps8Lum%2FbY0qwe1U6ujSk9aQaf%2F%2B6%2BBXxNNYQ7vnYRUY%3D&amp;reserved=0">20th anniversary</a> of a policy experiment that both the Fed and central banks around the globe would emulate. Try as he may, though, Kuroda is no closer to ending ZIRP than his three predecessors.</p>
<p>Among the reasons Kuroda is trapped: “yen-carry trade” risk. Global investors are drawn to Tokyo’s liquid markets, current-account surpluses and ultra-low borrowing options. For 20 years, this latter phenomenon has been the wind beneath the wings of higher-yielding assets from Brazil to New Zealand. There’s a catch, though: Sudden yen rallies can send shockwaves through global markets as those bets are unwound and repatriated.</p>
<p>Now that the Fed is taking a breather on rate hikes, many are betting on a stronger yen. It’s the last thing Japan&#8217;s <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Freuters%2F2019%2F02%2F07%2Fbusiness%2F07reuters-japan-economy-spending.html&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083723608&amp;sdata=it44Zg3fGrHV9RY6rJZJMmUIikHE7GasCoCnGMXuOKM%3D&amp;reserved=0">export</a><a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Freuters%2F2019%2F02%2F07%2Fbusiness%2F07reuters-japan-economy-spending.html&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083723608&amp;sdata=it44Zg3fGrHV9RY6rJZJMmUIikHE7GasCoCnGMXuOKM%3D&amp;reserved=0">-led economy</a> needs. As 2019 unfolds, Japan faces intensifying headwinds. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is crimping exports, slamming plans for fixed-asset investment and imperiling the wage gains needed to defeat deflation once and for all. This, too, is a year in which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to raise sales taxes again – this time to 10% from 8%.</p>
<p>The four tightening moves Fed governor Jerome Powell pulled off in 2018 seem a distant memory now. The sense among many punters is that Powell bowed to threats <a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2019%2F01%2F08%2Ftrump-is-probably-going-to-get-his-way-with-the-fed-this-year.html&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce224638ecc6e48e8708408d6917326a5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636856321083733613&amp;sdata=CyZMeE%2BZyRMQYyLbmJzAwG9R0PLQlRcOJNxmER46M2Y%3D&amp;reserved=0">from Trump</a>. Perhaps. But the pause in rate hikes has reduced concerns about widening rate gaps between Japan and other Group of Seven peers.</p>
<p>That is creating a bid for ultra-low yielding Japanese government bonds, one that speaks volumes about a decidedly upside-down moment in global finance.</p>
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman signs raft of deals in Islamabad, the first stop in his Asian tour
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-arabia-to-invest-20bn-in-pakistan/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/saudi-arabia-to-invest-20bn-in-pakistan/<p>Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a raft of investment agreements on Sunday worth up to US$20 billion, as Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the oil-rich Gulf kingdom&#8217;s de facto ruler, launched his Asia tour.</p>
<p>Pakistan is facing a serious balance-of-payments crisis and hopes the deals – seven separate agreements and memoranda of understanding – will help to stabilize its economy.</p>
<p>The crown prince, widely known as MBS, is staging the high-profile three-country visit five months after he came under intense pressure following the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.</p>
<p>He received a warm welcome in Pakistan.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked longtime ally Saudi Arabia for its support, adding: &#8220;Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are now taking this relationship to a level which [they] never had before.&#8221;</p>
<p>Khan has already visited Saudi Arabia twice since coming to power last summer.</p>
<p>Earlier on Sunday, MBS was greeted with a 21-gun salute and was warmly embraced by Khan and powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa as he stepped on to a red carpet flanked by an honor guard at a military airbase near Islamabad.</p>
<p>The two-day visit to Pakistan comes amid high regional tensions: India and Saudi Arabia&#8217;s arch-rival Iran – both bordering Pakistan – have accused Islamabad of backing militant groups that have carried out suicide attacks in their territory in recent days.</p>
<p>Hours ahead of the crown prince&#8217;s arrival, Pakistan dismissed New Delhi&#8217;s accusations as &#8220;well-rehearsed tactics from [the] Indian playbook after such incidents in the past.&#8221;</p>
<p>MBS will travel to India after his Pakistan visit, where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.</p>
<p>He is expected to finish the trip with a visit to China on Thursday and Friday.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
Authorities blamed saltwater crocodile for the attack on the man in Borneo
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indonesian-man-killed-by-a-crocodile-in-malaysia/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/indonesian-man-killed-by-a-crocodile-in-malaysia/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311834 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p>An Indonesian man was mauled to death by a crocodile on Tuesday while he was hunting for crabs in Malaysia. Muh Tahir Majid Syam, 40, was hunting for crabs by a river with his nephew in Sarawak before he went missing, the <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/crocodile-mauls-indonesian-to-death-in-malaysia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Straits Times</a> reported.</p>
<p>While his nephew was looking for him, he saw the man’s head emerge above the water before he sank again. On February 13, Syam’s body was found covered in bite marks. Authorities concluded he was killed by a saltwater crocodile. Syam was a migrant worker on an oil palm plantation.</p>
<p>Saltwater crocodiles are prominently seen along rivers and beaches on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. A series of attacks by crocodiles have been reported in the area. In 2017, Sarawak started issuing licenses to hunt crocodiles to curb their population.</p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asiatimes.app&amp;hl=en"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-309494" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbottom.png" alt="" width="728" height="116" /></a></p>
Market-oriented interest rates crucial to increasing support to private economy, says top official
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/liberalizing-interest-rates-key-to-private-sector/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/liberalizing-interest-rates-key-to-private-sector/<p class="p1">The key to encouraging financial institutions to better serve the private economy, is to make the interest rate more market-based, said Huang Yiping, vice president of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2996665">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Financial institutions cannot provide sustainable services to private and small companies if interest rates are not market-oriented, Huang said.</p>
<p class="p1">China&#8217;s financial system has two salient features — banks dominate and the government intervenes. Among China&#8217;s financial assets, banks accounted for more than 70%, and the government&#8217;s repression of the financial sector ranked 14th among 130 countries, according to Huang.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Such (a) system is more suitable for supporting large enterprises,&#8221; said Huang, &#8220;And there are certain discriminations for private companies and SMEs.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">Thus, Huang remained that interest rate liberalization is crucial to increasing the financial sector&#8217;s support to the private economy. It will also increase interest rates in the formal financial sector and lower interest rates in the informal sector, such as shadow banking and fin-tech.</p>
Growth to rely on scientific progress, quality of labour and management innovation: commentary
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/economy-must-accelerate-structural-upgrades/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/economy-must-accelerate-structural-upgrades/<p class="p1">China must seize the opportunity to accelerate optimizing and upgrading its economic structure, <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/gncj/2019-02-17/doc-ihqfskcp6041808.shtml">People&#8217;s Daily</a>, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, said Sunday in a front-page commentary.</p>
<p class="p1">The working-age population in China has decreased year by year, while land and other resources are becoming scarcer. It is becoming more and more unrealistic to rely on human resources.</p>
<p class="p1">Economic growth must instead rely on scientific and technological progress, the improvement of the quality of labour and the innovation of management, the newspaper said.</p>
<p class="p1">China must optimize its industrial structure and promote mid- and high-end manufacturing. Currently, strategic emerging industries and high-tech industries are growing at an average annual rate of more than 10%, contributing more than one third to economic growth, the paper said.</p>
<p class="p1">Also, China’s economic growth was highly dependent on exports in the past. But now, only expanding domestic demand can help to maintain the steady and rapid growth of the economy, especially to stimulate consumer demand which has become one of the main drivers to prop up growth.</p>
Analysts think China’s banking and insurance regulator is giving approvals faster than expected
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/icbc-okd-for-asset-management-subsidiary/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/icbc-okd-for-asset-management-subsidiary/<p class="p1">The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has given the green light to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to set up an asset management subsidiary, according to a statement on its website, <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2019-02-17/doc-ihqfskcp6082540.shtml">China Securities Journal</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The regulator has accepted a number of applications from other commercial banks, and about 30 other banks are also planning to apply, the newspaper said.</p>
<p class="p1">ICBC plans to invest no more than 16 billion yuan with its own funds to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, ICBC Financial Management Co. Ltd., to publicly issue wealth management products, provide financial advice and consulting services.</p>
<p class="p1">Previously, CCB, BOC, ABC and Bank of Communications have all been approved to set up asset management subsidiaries with registered capital of 15, 10, 12 and 8 billion yuan respectively.</p>
<p class="p1">Analysts think that the regulator is giving approvals faster than expected, showing their intention to accelerate the transformation of banking via the development of the wealth management business through their financial subsidiaries.</p>
The Palestinian Authority said the enclave’s Islamist rulers expelled and banned its employees
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hamas-takes-control-of-gaza-goods-crossing/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hamas-takes-control-of-gaza-goods-crossing/<p>Hamas, the Gaza Strip&#8217;s Islamist rulers, took control of the Palestinian side of the enclave&#8217;s main goods crossing with Israel, officials said Sunday.</p>
<p>Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 in a conflict with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas&#8217;s Fatah party.</p>
<p>However, it agreed to relinquish control of the crossings to the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2017, as part of a since-failed reconciliation effort between the two parties.</p>
<p>The PA administration at the goods crossing said Sunday that Hamas had &#8220;expelled [its] employees and banned them from entering the crossing,&#8221; the official news agency Wafa reported.</p>
<p>Known to Israelis as Kerem Shalom and to Palestinians as the Kerem Abu Salem, the crossing in the south of the impoverished enclave has been a lifeline for Gazans, who have endured a crippling Israeli blockade for more than a decade.</p>
<p>Hamas confirmed PA employees had left the crossing.</p>
<p>Security forces &#8220;put in place procedures dictated by security imperatives,&#8221; Gaza&#8217;s interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Palestinian Authority employees at the crossing have refused to cooperate on these procedures for a few days and today we were surprised by their departure,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>He said goods continued to pass through the crossing as normal.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
Indian broadcaster announces it will not be televising Pakistan Twenty20 league following suicide bombing
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/kashmir-attack-kills-cricket-coverage/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/kashmir-attack-kills-cricket-coverage/<p>Indian broadcaster IMG Reliance has withdrawn from its contract to provide coverage of the Pakistan Twenty20 league following the bloody attack in Kashmir last week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Sunday.</p>
<p>The company was televising the Pakistan Super League, which is being played in the United Arab Emirates because of security concerns, and it was also due to televise the last knockout matches to be held in Karachi and Lahore next month.</p>
<p>Forty-one Indian soldiers were killed in the suicide bombing, which was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group. It was the deadliest attack in the 30-year-old armed conflict in the disputed Himalayan region.</p>
<p>The PCB said it would announce the new live broadcasters of the tournament on Monday.</p>
<p>&#8220;The PCB always had a contingency plan in place, and we are confident we will be in a position to announce the new partner,&#8221; PCB managing director Wasim Khan said in a statement</p>
<p>&#8220;The PCB has also noted the recent turn of events and expresses its extreme disappointment as we have always believed and emphasized that sports and politics should be kept separate,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>The PCB said it will take up the matter with the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the International Cricket Council at a scheduled meeting in Dubai later this month.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
United Nations hopes de-escalation in port city will allow vital aid to reach millions on brink of starvation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/yemens-warring-parties-agree-on-first-pullback/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/yemens-warring-parties-agree-on-first-pullback/<p>The Yemeni government and the H0uthi insurgents have agreed on the first phase of a withdrawal of forces from the key city of Hodeida, a move the United Nations described Sunday as significant progress.</p>
<p>The pullback from Hodeida was a key provision of a ceasefire agreement reached in December in Sweden, but deadlines to shift forces away from the ports and parts of the city have not been met.</p>
<p>The Red Sea port is the entry point for most of the war-ravaged Arab republic&#8217;s imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions.</p>
<p>Following two days of negotiations in Hodeida city, the government and Houthis finalized a deal on the first phase of the withdrawal and also agreed in principle on the second phase, a UN statement said.</p>
<p>The talks were led by Danish General Michael Lollesgaard, chair of a redeployment coordination committee (RCC) that includes the government and the Houthis.</p>
<p>&#8220;After lengthy but constructive discussions facilitated by the RCC Chair, the parties reached an agreement on Phase 1 of the mutual redeployment of forces,&#8221; said the UN statement.</p>
<p>The sides made &#8220;important progress on planning for the redeployment of forces&#8221; but no date was set for beginning the demilitarization.</p>
<p>&#8220;The parties also agreed, in principle, on Phase 2 of the mutual redeployment, pending additional consultations within their respective leadership.&#8221;</p>
<p>The first phase provides for a withdrawal from the ports of Hodeida, Saleef and Ras Issa, and from parts of Hodeida city where there are humanitarian facilities.</p>
<p>The United Nations is hoping that a de-escalation in Hodeida will allow urgently needed food and medical aid to reach millions on the brink of starvation in the Arab world&#8217;s poorest country.</p>
<p>A new round is planned within a week to finalize details on the second phase of redeployment, the UN statement said.</p>
<p>The ceasefire and a Hodeida pullback agreed in Stockholm have been hailed as a major step toward ending Yemen&#8217;s nearly four-year war.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
Gulf state, which has become isolated due to regional dispute, plans to achieve its goal by 2022
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/qatar-aims-to-build-20bn-sports-industry/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/qatar-aims-to-build-20bn-sports-industry/<p>As it strives to develop new markets amid regional political tensions, Qatar wants to build a $20 billion sports industry by 2022, an official said Sunday.</p>
<p>Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida, chief executive of the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), said he expected the target to be reached within three years.</p>
<p>The QFC is a government-backed business body that aims to attract domestic and international investment into Qatar.</p>
<p>Jaida said there would be &#8220;a major expansion of sports in terms of targets and in terms of focus.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although well-known for hosting sporting events – and Qatar is likely to bid again to host the Olympics – Jaida said the new approach would go further.</p>
<p>The development of the industry would focus not only on hosting but increased use of Qatari sporting medical and training facilities, which are thought to be among the best in the world.</p>
<p>Jaida added that the Gulf state would try to cash in on the growing international reputation of its expensive sports&#8217; training center, the Aspire Academy.</p>
<p>Aspire is used by an increasing number of teams – including Bayern Munich and Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain – and is a hothouse for many of the local players who recently helped Qatar win the Asian Cup.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re doing this in coordination with Aspire and if you look at the infrastructure that they put together it&#8217;s massive, it&#8217;s world class and I think we can build upon their success,&#8221; said Jaida.</p>
<p>Jaida admitted that the new approach had been driven because of political tensions in the Gulf.</p>
<p>&#8220;The strategy came about because of the geopolitical situation,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Since June 2017, Qatar has been isolated from neighboring former allies as a result of a bitter political dispute.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain accuse Qatar of supporting and funding &#8220;terrorism&#8221; and of working with Riyadh&#8217;s regional adversary Iran.</p>
<p>Doha denies the charges and accuses its rivals of seeking regime change in Qatar.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
Syrian president says American troop withdrawal will make minority group vulnerable to Turkish offensive
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/assad-warns-kurds-that-us-will-not-protect-them/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/assad-warns-kurds-that-us-will-not-protect-them/<p>President Bashar al-Assad warned Syria&#8217;s Kurds Sunday that their ally Washington would not protect them against a Turkish offensive as the US looks to withdraw its forces.</p>
<p>The US is set to withdraw its troops from Syria after allied Kurdish-led forces capture the last ISIS holdout in the war-ravaged country.</p>
<p>Any withdrawal risks leaving the Kurds exposed to a long-threatened offensive by neighboring Turkey, which views Kurdish fighters as &#8220;terrorists.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We tell those groups who are betting on the Americans that the Americans will not protect you,&#8221; Assad said in a televised speech.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Americans do not hold you in their heart&#8230; They will put you in their pocket so you can be a bargaining chip.&#8221;</p>
<p>Apart from fighting ISIS, the Kurds have largely stayed out of Syria&#8217;s civil war, working towards semi-autonomy in the northeast of the country.</p>
<p>The looming prospect of a US withdrawal, announced in December, has sent them scrambling to rebuild ties with the Assad regime, but talks so far have failed to reach a compromise.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you don&#8217;t prepare yourselves to defend your country and resist, you will be nothing but a slave to the Ottomans,&#8221; Assad warned, using a historic term for Turks.</p>
<p>&#8220;No one will protect you except your state. No one will defend you except the Syrian Arab army,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has fought ISIS with support from the US-led coalition since 2015, on Sunday met to discuss &#8220;the future of relations with the Syrian government.&#8221;</p>
<p>The SDF stressed the need for the Assad regime to recognize the &#8220;special status&#8221; of the Kurdish-Arab alliance, as well as the Kurdish semi-autonomous region.</p>
<p>In a statement, it also expressed a &#8220;willingness to solve problems with Turkey through dialogue,&#8221; based on &#8220;mutual respect.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Amount is equal to what the PA paid last year to families of prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/israel-to-withhold-138m-from-palestinians/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/israel-to-withhold-138m-from-palestinians/<p>Israel announced on Sunday that it was going to withhold $138 million in tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority (PA) over its payments to prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s office said in a statement that the withheld funds would be equal to that paid by the PA last year to &#8220;terrorists imprisoned in Israel, to their families and to released prisoners.&#8221;</p>
<p>Israel claims the payments encourage further violence.</p>
<p>The PA says the payments are intended as welfare support for families who have lost their main breadwinner and denies it is seeking to encourage violence.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians view prisoners and those killed while carrying out attacks as heroes in their conflict with Israel. Palestinian leaders often venerate them, describing them as martyrs.</p>
<p>Senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Ahmed Majdalani accused Israel and the United States, which has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian aid, of using blackmail tactics.</p>
<p>US President Donald Trump&#8217;s White House is expected to release its long-awaited peace plan later this year, which the Palestinians believe will be blatantly biased in favor of the Israelis.</p>
<p>The Palestinians cut off contact with the White House after Trump&#8217;s 2017 declaration of Jerusalem as Israel&#8217;s capital.</p>
<p>&#8220;The occupation government is seeking to destroy the national authority in partnership with the US administration of Donald Trump,&#8221; Majdalani said in a statement.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli police on Sunday evicted a Palestinian family from their home in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City, after the supreme court ruled Jewish claimants were the rightful owners.</p>
<p>An AFP photographer said residents of the neighborhood in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem scuffled with police, who stood guard as about a dozen Israeli settlers took possession of the large building.</p>
<p>A police spokesman said two people were detained.</p>
<p>&#8220;They disturbed police activities,&#8221; he told AFP but could not say if they were later released.</p>
<p>Rania Abu Asab, who lived in the house with her husband, their children and his aunt, stood crying outside as the settlers raised the Israeli flag on the roof.</p>
<p>&#8220;We live there, it&#8217;s my house, it&#8217;s my whole life,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They took everything.&#8221;</p>
<p>She said the family was compelled to leave behind all its furniture and belongings.</p>
<p>Ir Amim, an Israeli watchdog group which monitors settlement activity in Jerusalem, reported on February 3 that the Abu Asab family had been served an eviction notice ordering them to vacate the property by February 12.</p>
<p>It said family members had lived there since the 1960s.</p>
<p><em>– with reporting by Agence France-Presse</em></p>
As Xi prepares China for the global marketplace it will confront in 2025, Trump seeks to pull the US back to 1985
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bet-on-trump-to-fold-in-china-trade-talks/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bet-on-trump-to-fold-in-china-trade-talks/<p><em>A person who says something can’t be done shouldn’t interrupt the man doing it. </em>This old Chinese adage leaps to mind as Donald Trump’s negotiators joust with Xi Jinping’s over what could be history’s most important trade deal.</p>
<p>President Trump is the one saying China won’t be allowed to surpass <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/president-xi-is-left-over-an-economic-barrel/">America’s economy</a>. Washington will never cede its leadership of the global financial system – no way, no how. President Xi is the one investing hundreds of billions of dollars in leading sectors from autos to aerospace to pharmaceuticals to semiconductors to robots within six years. Quite a contrast to Trump’s making coal great again.</p>
<p>The divergent directions in which the two biggest economies are headed is the subtext of the Trump-Xi faceoff.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/business/us-china-trade.html">High-level talks in Beijing</a> ended on Friday with no visible progress, although Trump said on Saturday that he had been briefed at his Florida resort by negotiators and described the talks as &#8220;very productive.&#8221;</p>
<p>Washington and Beijing are staring at a March 1 deadline. Among the many possible outcomes, here are the two most likely.</p>
<p>The first, and most likely, is China agreeing to buy more US goods and vague steps to open the economy. That way, Trump can claim a win on the global stage and give Wall Street reason to bid stocks higher. And Asia can breathe a sigh of relief as the Group of Two steps down from DEFCON 1.</p>
<p>The second – a genuine reordering of China’s practices – is far less likely. Still, its mere specter will tantalize investors over the next couple of weeks. If Trump’s negotiating team was wise, it would hold out for deal No. 2.</p>
<p>Sure, Trump has Xi’s back against the proverbial wall. Beijing is <a href="https://beta.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2186228/trade-war-talks-china-and-us-said-be-far-apart-framework?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=mailchimp&amp;utm_campaign=enlz-scmp_today&amp;utm_content=20190215&amp;MCUID=3febdfc199&amp;MCCampaignID=6559b59b47&amp;MCAccountID=3775521f5f542047246d9c827&amp;tc=7">anxious for a deal</a>. In reality, though, Xi has greater latitude – and pain threshold – than Trump, thanks largely to the calendar.</p>
<p>No, Xi isn’t enjoying Trump’s tariffs on roughly $250 billion of mainland goods. The angry tweets, the threats of a dollar devaluation, the suggestion Chinese workers are somehow victimizing Trump’s economy are a drag indeed.</p>
<p>But Xi, the strongest Chinese leader in decades, isn’t facing a plethora of investigations. His Communist Party isn’t reeling from recent losses in mid-term elections. Xi’s legislative prospects aren’t dependent on the whims of a resurgent opposition party. Nor is Xi legitimacy tied to a jittery stock market, as is Trump’s. All Xi needs to do, really, is get Trump off his back.</p>
<p>A deal to buy, say, $100 billion or $200 billion of US goods would sound grand. It wouldn’t much matter, though. The odds of China finding anywhere near that amount of <a href="https://beta.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2186228/trade-war-talks-china-and-us-said-be-far-apart-framework?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=mailchimp&amp;utm_campaign=enlz-scmp_today&amp;utm_content=20190215&amp;MCUID=3febdfc199&amp;MCCampaignID=6559b59b47&amp;MCAccountID=3775521f5f542047246d9c827&amp;tc=7">Made in America stuff</a> are slim. Most important from Xi’s perspective is that a gleeful Trump directs his ire elsewhere.</p>
<p>Asia will just have to hope that doesn’t mean Tokyo or Seoul. Trump is prodding Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to negotiate a bilateral trade deal. In general, though, a truce between Washington and Beijing would brighten prospects for Asian growth and markets. It also would give policymakers breathing space to upgrade domestic economies.</p>
<p>This scenario worries investors like J. Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management. “There’s speculation that Trump has told his negotiators to ‘<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-02-11/trump-can-t-waste-china-trade-talks">get a deal done</a>’ in order to put an end to recent market volatility,” Bass wrote in a recent Bloomberg op-ed with Daniel Babich. “But that would mean foregoing a historic opportunity to come to a major restructuring of America’s relationship with China at a moment when China is most inclined to agree to concessions. We have come too far for Trump to take the easy way out.”</p>
<p>The trick is getting Beijing to dismantle “an industrial policy that grants unique advantages, namely widespread government subsidies, protected domestic markets and regulatory preferences, to Chinese government-affiliated national champions.” The priority, Bass and Babich argue, is to “end China’s long-standing policy of bulk economic espionage and theft, which annually costs America’s economy at least $300 billion, according to US government estimates.”</p>
<p>This, of course, is the reason many Democrats in Washington give tacit approval to Trump’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/25/what-trump-gets-right-about-china-and-trade.html">trade antics</a>. In the 18 years since Beijing joined the World Trade Organization, a succession of US leaders hoped it would start acting like a stakeholder in world affairs, not just a shareholder.</p>
<p>Trump took his own crack at doing something others said couldn’t be done. Odds are, though, Trump will interrupt <em>himself</em>.</p>
<p>Trump’s fellow Republicans are urging him to stand firm. Case in point: Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who last week <a href="At%20the%20same%20time,%20it’s%20important%20to%20recognize%20what%20Plaza%20Accord-like%20exchange-rate%20bullying%20doesn’t%20accomplish.%20It%20won’t%20upgrade%20America’s%20pathetic%20infrastructure,%20stabilize%20health%20care%20markets,%20fix%20the%20mushrooming%20opioid-addiction%20crisis%20or%20prepare%20the%20workforce%20for%20automation%20and%20artificial%20intelligence%20advancements%20sure%20to%20kill%20more%20jobs%20than%20China%20will.%20It%20won’t%20boost%20productivity,%20address%20inequality%20or%20prod%20executives%20to%20boost%20wages,%20or%20make%20corporate%20America%20more%20innovative.">proposed legislation</a> that would curb and tax mainland investment to combat Xi’s “Made in China 2025” scheme.</p>
<p>“US policy,” said the Florida lawmaker, “should respond to the practical and political economy challenges. This includes enacting strategic US-China capital flow restrictions and corresponding defensive measures for domestic industries targeted by the plan.”</p>
<p>Fair enough, this too ignores why America is walking in place as China raises its game. More open Chinese markets won’t fix America’s crumbling infrastructure, make workers more innovative or productive or stabilize health care costs. It won’t improve America’s education system, prod executives to boost wages or make corporate America more inventive. Nor will a trade deal prepare the workforce for automation and artificial intelligence advancements remaking the job market.</p>
<p>The real problem is that as Xi prepares China for the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-might-have-to-cross-those-thin-red-lines/?_=6059157">global marketplace</a> it will confront in 2025, Trump seeks to pull the US back to 1985. That was a simpler time, back when the White House, the Federal Reserve and corporate America controlled the global economy. And reaped the lion’s share of the spoils.</p>
<p>Trump isn’t wrong to demand that China trade fairly and transparently. But his tariff arms race must be accompanied by heavy lifting at home to reorient the US for a fast-changing globe. Odds are, Trump will take deal No. 1 and move on. Xi, meanwhile, will keep doing what Trump says China can’t.</p>
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US president and North Korea’s leader will discuss denuclearization in Vietnam later this month
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/will-the-second-trump-kim-summit-make-history/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/will-the-second-trump-kim-summit-make-history/<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-312357 aligncenter" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-9.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></p>
<p>Now that the United States has announced that the second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place at the end of this month, the world is once again zooming in on the two countries that had vowed to blow each other sky high in some intense verbal sparring.</p>
<p>Unlike the first summit in Singapore in June 2018, the second Trump-Kim meeting is likely to face more challenges due to Washington&#8217;s demand that North Korea must follow through with denuclearization.</p>
<p>What is noteworthy is that it was Trump himself who first announced the time and location of the summit. “It will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 &amp; 28. I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim &amp; advancing the cause of peace!” Trump tweeted on February 9, expressing high expectations for the event.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">My representatives have just left North Korea after a very productive meeting and an agreed upon time and date for the second Summit with Kim Jong Un. It will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 &amp; 28. I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim &amp; advancing the cause of peace!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1094031561861881856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Either a mutually recognized timetable or a roadmap for denuclearization – even a simple promise from Pyongyang – could be a big plus for Trump come election time, as it would give him a diplomatic achievement to boast about.</p>
<p>In his State of the Union address on February 5, Trump said he planned to meet with Kim on February 27-28 in Vietnam but did not specify the venue. According to US sources, Washington had considered a summit in the port city of Da Nang, the US military&#8217;s point of entry in the Vietnam War, but Pyongyang reportedly favored Hanoi. If this is true, the United States may well have made some concessions in order to bring Kim to the table.</p>
<p>Ahead of the summit, Trump has already expressed optimism about the future of North Korea. Taking Vietnam as a role model, Trump said that under the leadership of Kim, North Korea will become a great “Economic Powerhouse.”</p>
<p>He added: “I have gotten to know him [Kim] &amp; fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse. He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him &amp; fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket &#8211; an Economic one!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1094035813820784640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>After the first summit – even though Pyongyang did not make any specific commitments concerning the elimination of its nuclear arsenal – Pyongyang refrained from conducting any nuclear or missile tests. Trump claimed that the meeting had largely resolved the long-standing nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.</p>
<p>As the Trump-Kim Summit 2.0 approaches, Pyongyang is being discreet in both its words and actions. On February 8, the 71st anniversary of the founding of the Korean People&#8217;s Army, the country did not hold a large-scale military parade like it did last year when Pyongyang showcased the Hwasong-15 new intercontinental ballistic missile, which is allegedly capable of striking the US mainland.</p>
<p>In addition, the tone of articles published by the North Korean media on the anniversary was unusually subdued. On February 8, the front-page editorial of the Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Workers&#8217; Party of Korea, did not focus on nuclear development as it usually does, or refer to “US imperialism.” It merely emphasized the need for the country&#8217;s army to continue demonstrating its invincible strength. This change in tone could be attributable to the upcoming summit.</p>
<h4>Diplomatic progress</h4>
<p>Given the diplomatic progress made as a result of the first summit in Singapore, the international community, especially the United States, is hopeful that the second meeting will lead to progress in key areas including denuclearization, but Washington&#8217;s specific objectives have not been unveiled.</p>
<p>However, before meeting with officials in Pyongyang recently to work out the details of the second summit, Stephen Biegun, Washington&#8217;s special envoy for North Korea-related issues, said the US would be aiming for “a roadmap of negotiations and declarations going forward, and a shared understanding of the desired outcomes of our joint efforts.”</p>
<p>Some American scholars believe the second summit could set the stage for some major agreements, and that both sides might work together to iron out the details of a Korean War ceasefire declaration, which would be a historically significant achievement.</p>
<p>While North Korea appears to be fully committed to the meeting, it has also been conveying the message that Pyongyang hopes the United States will relax the sanctions it is imposing.</p>
<p>“I think there is every opportunity that Chairman Kim will move on to fulfill the commitments that he made, and then we will, in turn, fulfill the commitments we made towards stability on the peninsula and a better future, a brighter future, for the North Korean people,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a TV interview earlier this month.</p>
<p><em>Shi Jiangyue is a columnist for the Asia Times Chinese website.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><b>––––––</b></p>
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Atul Bhardwaj’s new book re-examines the evolution of US-India relations from the early days of the Cold War to the 1962 Indo-China War
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/did-america-use-india-to-cause-sino-soviet-split/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/did-america-use-india-to-cause-sino-soviet-split/<p>The two great communist nations of the 20th century were expected to be staunch allies but escalating disagreements between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and China&#8217;s Chairman Mao Tse-<wbr />tung resulted in the Sino-Soviet split during the Cold War. But the key role in causing the split to contain the Soviet Union was played by the United States and India was a crucial part of the grand strategy, in the view of Atul Bharadwaj.</p>
<p>How the relationship between India and the US evolved between 1942-62 and the road to the Indo-China War of 1962 are the central themes of Bharadwaj&#8217;s latest book &#8220;India-America Relations (1942-62): Rooted in the Liberal International Order,&#8221; published by Routledge.</p>
<p>Bharadwaj, an Hon. Research Fellow at the Department of International Politics at the University of London, examines the role of America in shaping the international position of post-colonial India in this book excerpt:</p>
<p>The term ‘Titoism’ became famous after Joseph Stalin and Josip Broz Tito denounced each other’s communist parties and parted ways in 1948. From then on Tito, a professed communist, got closer to the US and other Western powers.</p>
<p>The Americans expected Mao to be their Tito in China. The term was so much in vogue that it was mentioned in an article published in the <em>Times of India, </em>an English daily, on the subject of the Sino-Russian tussle over Xinjiang, located in Northwest China, in 1949. The article said that Moscow was keen to exercise control over affairs of Xinjiang &#8220;for economic and strategic reasons, not least of all because Mao might still decide to do a Tito.&#8221;</p>
<p>Initially, Britain with its territorial interests in China thought of mediating between the US and China. APJ Taylor even proposed that Britain should be &#8220;America’s Tito&#8221; to strengthen an effective &#8220;third force&#8221; in a bi-polar world. However, this proposition did not fit into the American grand strategy, which would have required an acrimonious Anglo-American relationship to win China’s trust.</p>
<p>The NATO alliance could not afford this display of Anglo-American rupture. The job of mediation and feigning neutrality fell in Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s lap. It was something that Nehru and VK Krishna Menon were more than willing to perform as it matched their worldview and gave them the leeway to popularize the idea of &#8220;non-alignment.&#8221; They did not want India to align with any bloc or alliance led by the US and the Soviet Union at that time.</p>
<p>Alternatively, it could be argued that Britain did assume the role of &#8220;American Tito&#8221; and an &#8220;honest broker&#8221; in Asia but rather than self-performing the task, it outsourced the job to India. Much like India, Britain too differed with the American policy of not giving recognition to China, at a time when a &#8220;special partnership with the US was important for it to feel that it [Britain] had not lost everything.&#8221;</p>
<p><img class="wp-image-311512 alignright" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/9780815394044.jpg" alt="" width="317" height="478" /></p>
<p>Ever since the communist victory in China, the Soviets feared Mao would follow Tito in promoting anti-Sovietism. After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev decided to pre-empt Mao’s move by getting closer to the West. Khrushchev made a departure from &#8220;past principles&#8221; (e.g. the repudiation of the inevitability of war and the abandonment of the concept of capitalist encirclement).</p>
<p>In July 1955, Soviet leader Khrushchev sat together with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and French Prime Minister Guy Mollet at the Geneva conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy that encouraged cooperation among nuclear scientists from both the blocs.</p>
<p>If Khrushchev and Premier Nikolai Bulganin visited India towards the end of 1955, they also went to Britain in April 1956. Khrushchev &#8220;signed cultural agreements with Norway and Belgium in 1956, and England and France in 1957.&#8221; Khrushchev started sending positive signals to the US, and in 1957, Washington responded by sending delegations to the Soviet Union. On January 27, 1958, the Zarubin-Lacy agreement was signed between the Soviet Union and the US. The “Agreement” ‘entailed exchanges in multiple fields, such as science, technology, agriculture, radio and television, film, government, publication, tourism, and exhibitions’.</p>
<p>In 1959, Khrushchev took the unconventional diplomatic step of landing on American soil to ease Cold War tensions. The Soviet move to rekindle its relations with America may have been guided by a desire to exploit the &#8220;division between the aggressive and pacifist bourgeois state in capitalist countries.&#8221; However, the Soviets ended up accelerating the prospects of a Sino-Soviet split, the mainstay of American &#8220;containment&#8221; strategy. America had successfully initiated a game of one-upmanship between China and the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>The Chinese were not happy with Khrushchev’s ideological deviations because they felt that US peace gestures were not sincere. After completing his US tour, Khrushchev arrived in Beijing on September 30 to participate in the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. During his speech, Khrushchev warned against taking on the capitalist system by force of arms.</p>
<p>The Chinese differed with Khrushchev’s disarmament initiatives because according to their strategic assessment, the US monopoly financial groups that earned huge profits from the arms industry would never allow the disarmament process to succeed. Moreover, the Chinese felt that the &#8220;Soviet search for detente was disorienting the masses and undermining their resolve to carry on an unrelenting struggle for the defeat of world imperialism.&#8221;</p>
<p>The prospects of a Sino-Soviet split was aggravated when Moscow took a &#8220;neutral stance after a shooting incident on the Sino-Indian border on August 25, 1959.&#8221; They added fuel to the fire by offering India aid and military assistance. When Tito advised the Soviets to adopt a &#8220;pacifying&#8221; role in the India-China dispute, the People’s Daily blamed &#8220;the Tito clique&#8221; for exposing themselves &#8220;as a group of renegades betraying socialism, hating socialist China and sowing dissensions among the socialist countries.&#8221; When Tito had visited India in January 1959, The People’s Daily had similarly accused him of trying to &#8220;peddle wares that suit the need of imperialism.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nehru was aware of the American grand strategy of causing a Sino-Soviet schism. In early 1953, a letter by US diplomat Chester Bowles to the US president and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said that the &#8220;basic objective of our (US) foreign policy should be to bring a rift between the Soviet Union and Communist China.&#8221; Bowles had spoken about this objective to Nehru, who was convinced that this was necessary to avoid a third World War. &#8220;Nehru was the protagonist of the view that China is Asian first and Communist next. He held the belief that if the non-socialist countries extend contact with China, she might become more independent of the Soviet Union.&#8221;</p>
<p>Speaking about the possibility of a split among the communist giants, Bowles reported at the Psychological Board Meeting held on 12 June 1952 that the Indian delegation was convinced that the &#8220;emergence of an independent China, not necessarily pro-West China&#8221; was needed to change Russia’s confrontationist approach to America. Nehru was of the opinion that &#8220;anything that tends to push or play into Russian minds by pushing China is a mistake.&#8221;</p>
There is no clear frontrunner ahead of next month’s presidential election and huge challenges face the eventual winner
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/weak-field-fighting-corruption-cloud-ukraine-elections/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/weak-field-fighting-corruption-cloud-ukraine-elections/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311834 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p>An uphill battle awaits incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine’s March 31 presidential election as, despite his lagging popularity, he aims to rally nationalist-leaning voters in a bid to secure a second mandate.</p>
<p>With a modest 10.8% approval rating, victory looks distant. Yet Poroshenko is still among the front-runners in a presidential race tallying a record 44 candidates, none of whom are expected to secure more than 20% support.</p>
<p>Elected in the aftermath of the 2014 “Maidan Revolution” that overturned pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych’s corruption-plagued rule, Poroshenko – a billionaire businessman before entering politics – was entrusted with the difficult task of guiding Ukraine toward a new western-oriented, democratic path and away from Moscow’s orbit.</p>
<p>Five years have passed since tumultuous scenes of revolution unfolded in Kiev&#8217;s main square. While certain democratic, social and civic gains have been realized, the revolution’s outcomes are for many decidedly mixed.</p>
<h4>Challenging mandate</h4>
<p>Ukraine’s ambitious goals have for the most part failed to materialize. Despite some modest advancements towards European integration, endemic corruption is far from being eradicated and powerful oligarchs still influence the country’s fragile democratic institutions.</p>
<p>More than 10,300 Ukrainians have lost their lives in a low-intensity trench war still raging in the country’s eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops are pitted against pro-Russian separatists defending unrecognized, self-proclaimed republics. Ukrainian forces have advanced further into the buffer zone that divides the warring sides in recent years as fighting continues with no solution in sight.</p>
<p>Since a controversial referendum in 2014 that formalized Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, the territory has become more fully integrated with Russia after a 19-kilometer bridge connecting the peninsula to the mainland was opened last year. A hapless Kiev officially designates the region as under “temporary occupation.”</p>
<p>Touting defiance of Moscow, Poroshenko has more recently embraced a nationalist, anti-Russian variant of right-wing populism that trumpets a campaign motto of “Army, Faith and Language,” which some see as a turn away from certain liberal and inclusive values he claimed to represent at the start of his mandate.</p>
<p>Many regard the president’s nationalist turn as a political gambit aimed at rallying his fractured nation against “Russian aggression” to buttress his low approval ratings ahead of polls that will see a disillusioned electorate queue to cast ballots.</p>
<p>In December last year, after a naval clash in the Azov Sea resulted in three Ukrainian vessels and 24 sailors being captured by Russian forces, Poroshenko pushed through a month-long period of martial law affecting regions bordering Russia in a testy show of readiness for direct confrontation with Kiev’s militarily-superior neighbor to the east.</p>
<p>Even the long-awaited independence of the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Patriarchate, achieved earlier this year, was largely perceived as part of Poroshenko’s electoral campaign. The Ukrainian president depicted the religious schism in no uncertain terms as a geopolitical maneuver aimed at freeing Ukraine from Moscow’s influence.</p>
<p>Finally, Poroshenko moved to cement a pro-Western strategic course earlier this month as lawmakers in parliament <a href="https://www.unian.info/politics/10437570-ukraine-s-parliament-backs-changes-to-constitution-confirming-ukraine-s-path-toward-eu-nato.html">approved</a> amendments enshrining Kiev’s aspirations for membership of NATO and the European Union into the country’s constitution.</p>
<h4>A weak field</h4>
<p>Competing with Poroshenko for the hearts and minds of the pro-European, pro-NATO electorate is former prime minister and leader of the Fatherland Party Yulia Tymoshenko. A veteran of Ukrainian politics, Tymoshenko promises to take a stronger stance against corruption and implement ambitious economic reforms while also pushing back against IMF-backed utility tariff rises.</p>
<p>Ukraine won a new lending commitment from the IMF in December as speculation rose over how the cash-strapped nation would continue to service its US$11 billion debt load and finance a budget deficit. The fund required the government to raise household gas prices, which were <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/reuters-america-update-2-ukraine-raises-gas-prices-as-pm-warns-of-default.html">increased</a> by nearly one quarter in October.</p>
<p>As the struggle between Poroshenko and Timoshenko heats up, with the two <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-tymoshenko-campaigning-polls-suprun/29757308.html">accusing</a> each other of buying votes, distrust in the political establishment could favor a third protagonist: political outsider and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky. Having recently overtaken both Poroshenko and Tymoshenko in <a href="https://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/reytingi-kandidatov-1543488440.html">several polls</a>, he is now considered the race&#8217;s frontrunner.</p>
<p>Despite his lack of political experience, the Russian-speaking comedian – who stars in a popular satirical TV show – could emerge as a political insurgent with his promise to end politics as usual. His critics, however, accuse him of being a puppet of notorious oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, whose television channel broadcasts Zelensky’s show.</p>
<p>Poroshenko is likely to face defeat in case of a run-off against either Timoshenko or Zelensky according to analysts, some of whom believe the incumbent president would only stand a chance of winning in a run-off against former Energy Minister Yuri Boiko, who is ranked fourth in the polls and promotes a conciliatory approach with Russia.</p>
<h4>Lame duck?</h4>
<p>“If Poroshenko wins, it remains to be seen how he can reinvent himself and make the presidency viable so as to get the votes behind the bills he initiates in parliament,” Bohdan Nahaylo, a veteran journalist, author and former senior UN official, told Asia Times. “Otherwise, what can he do? He’ll be a lame duck.&#8221;</p>
<p>“He will have a daunting task because his first priority will have to be restoring trust and public confidence,&#8221; Nanaylo added. &#8220;And if the future will end up being an even greater mess, he could end up as president but even weaker than he is now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nahaylo believes Tymoshenko has the financing, experience and economic clout needed to mount a strong challenge to Poroshenko, though he says she has to prove she’s not all empty promises. Another issue is that despite promoting greater integration with Euro-Atlantic structures, some regard Tymoshenko with suspicion because she is seen as being more amenable to forging political compromises with Russia.</p>
<p>“There’s a great deal of distrust, partly due to her own track record and its said constantly that she’s a ‘Putin ploy.’ Maybe Putin hopes that if Yulia gets in, he’ll be able to do business with her, but anything that would smell of capitulation would be deadly,” Nahaylo said. “You would have people in the streets and another Maidan.”</p>
<h4>Anti-Russianism ongoing</h4>
<p>Ukraine is expected to allocate a record-high $7.45 billion budget for defense and security in 2019, forecast to reach approximately 5.9% of the country’s estimated gross domestic product. “Almost five years into this conflict, we don’t see or hear the rhetoric of peacemaking. It’s still the rhetoric of war on both sides,” Nahaylo says.</p>
<p>Much of that spending will be concentrated on Ukraine’s ramshackle navy after November’s clashes with Russia’s Coast Guard exposed the vulnerability of Ukraine’s southern, coastal flank on the Black Sea. Ukraine’s captured sailors continue to be <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-court-upholds-prolongation-of-ukrainian-sailors-pretrial-detentions/29766208.html">detained</a> in Moscow and could face six years in prison if found guilty of illegally entering Russian territorial waters.</p>
<p>Ukraine’s naval command admits it is now unable to mount an adequate response to Russia at sea and has drawn up a development <a href="https://uawire.org/ukraine-announces-plans-to-restore-navy">strategy</a> with assistance from Western advisors. Russia’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, <a href="https://defence-blog.com/news/russia-calls-us-ukrainian-plans-to-conduct-exercises-in-the-black-sea-a-dangerous-idea.html">called</a> planned US-Ukrainian multinational maritime exercises in the Black Sea “dangerous” and a threat to regional stability.</p>
<p>“Ukraine can talk a lot about beefing up its small boats out there, beefing up its rocket capacity from the shores,” Nahaylo said. “[But] at the end of the day, without Western support and tacit Turkish support, there’s no way Ukraine can get the upper hand there or even hold its own.”</p>
<p>Still, Ukraine does have some support from Western institutions. “The IMF has put forward a new lending commitment, the EU has given more money,” the veteran analyst added. “They don’t want to let Ukraine down at this stage because there’s a war going on.</p>
<p>“But it’s not because of Poroshenko, but despite Poroshenko. If he remains in office at the end of the day, many experts say he would use the next five years to block every initiative relating to transparency and accountability so that he doesn’t end up in jail five years down the road.”</p>
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Japan’s prime minister puts US president forward for Nobel for his efforts on North Korea – but is it a plea for Trump’s and Kim’s respect and attention?
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/abe-nominates-trump-for-nobel-peace-prize-pre-kim-summit/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/abe-nominates-trump-for-nobel-peace-prize-pre-kim-summit/<p>US President Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his diplomatic outreach to North Korea, Trump revealed during a press conference at the White House on Friday.</p>
<p>Trump said Abe had shown him a copy of a five-page letter he sent to “the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize,” <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-16/trump-says-japan-s-abe-nominated-him-for-nobel-peace-prize">according to wire reports. </a> “He said, ‘I have nominated you&#8230;’ or ‘Respectfully, on behalf of Japan, I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize,’” Trump said.</p>
<p>Abe nominated Trump because Japan now feels “good” and “safe” after North Korean ballistic missile test launches ceased.</p>
<p>The move may boost the personal pride of Trump &#8211; who some critics believe is at least partly motivated by egotism &#8211; and give him an added incentive to achieve success in his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.</p>
<p>However, one observer also believes Abe is making a plea for attention, as Korean Peninsula-related diplomatic maneuvers appear to be slipping from his grasp, amid apparent Seoul-Pyongyang-Washington coordination, and at a time when Seoul-Tokyo ties are hitting new nadirs.</p>
<p><strong>Nobels in play</strong></p>
<p>There has, as yet, been no public comment on the matter from the Nobel committee. Trump’s predecessor as president, Barack Obama, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for &#8220;extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.”</p>
<p>The current president has been critical of the award to Obama – a frequent target of Trumpian criticism &#8211; with Trump saying, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/15/trump-shinzo-abe-nominated-me-nobel-peace-prize">“I’ll probably never get it, but that’s OK. They gave it to Obama. He didn’t even know what he got it for.”</a></p>
<p>It is not the first time a national leader has suggested that Trump receive the Nobel for his North Korean efforts. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea-trump/trump-should-win-the-nobel-peace-prize-says-south-koreas-moon-idUSKBN1I10OD?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=Social">In April 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in made the suggestion</a> – albeit in off-the-cuff, reported remarks rather than in an actual nomination letter.</p>
<p>Moon’s remark was widely analyzed at the time be an effort to flatter Trump&#8217;s and keep him on the diplomatic engagement track, following a sudden inter-Korean thaw at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, earlier that year.</p>
<p><strong>Plea for attention?</strong></p>
<p>Abe has gone to considerable lengths to forge an chummy personal relationship with Trump and continues to prioritize his nation’s alliance with Washington. But currently, there are significant strains in Japan-US relations.</p>
<p>Washington and Tokyo are at odds over trade – in one of his first acts as president, Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact which Tokyo had championed &#8211; and tariffs on Japanese exports. Moreover, Tokyo appears to be well out of the inner track on Pyongyang-Washington negotiations.</p>
<p>Instead, there has been considerable coordination in recent weeks between Seoul and Washington as the latter capital gears up for Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27-28.</p>
<p>It will be the second pow wow between the two men, following last June’s Singapore meeting. Seoul’s Moon Jae-in has also held three summits with Kim. Abe, on the other hand, has yet to meet the North Korean leader, despite putting out feelers on multiple occasions.</p>
<p>There is some irony in Abe’s mention of the lack of missile launches by North Korea, as the moratorium on missile tests was, in fact, put in place by Kim, prior to his June meeting Trump.</p>
<p>Given all this, Abe’s unusual maneuver seems aimed at keeping Trump on-side, while at the same time, suggesting to North Korea that Tokyo approves of ongoing diplomatic efforts, while also perhaps making a plea for direct talks with Kim.</p>
<p>“Abe is trying to send the message to the White House that Abe appreciates what he is doing, and is sending the message that Japan does not want to be left out,” Myong-hyun Go, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute told Asia Times. “There are rumors now that Japan and North Korea are holding backroom discussions… Japan sees some value in talking to North Korea, to show that South Korea is not the only dialog channel.”</p>
<p>The issue rises at a time when diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo – never easy – are at an all-time low over multiple issues.</p>
<p>Moon Hee-sang, the speaker of the South Korean parliament, last week urged the emperor to apologize for war crimes, raising ire in Tokyo. A South Korean court has ordered wartime compensation be paid to laborers, in contravention of a bilateral 1965 diplomatic normalization treaty, angering Tokyo, which is already irked by Seoul’s unilateral dissolution of a compensation fund for comfort women that had been agreed upon by the two capitals in 2015.</p>
<p>And the two countries are engaged in a war or words over a naval dispute: Tokyo insists that a South Korean destroyer locked its target radar on a Japanese patrol aircraft last year; Seoul insists it did not do so, and castigates Tokyo for continuing to buzz its warships at low level.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
The suicide car-bomb attack that killed over 40 paramilitary police has widowed and orphaned many – and generated nationwide rage against the perpetrators
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shock-fury-ripple-across-india-following-kashmir-terror-attack/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/shock-fury-ripple-across-india-following-kashmir-terror-attack/<p>When Virendra Singh, a constable with the Central Reserve Police Force, left home in Uttarakhand for Jammu just days ago, he assured elder brother Jairam Singh that he would soon be back home to celebrate Holi &#8211; the Hindu Festival of Colors that falls on March 20 this year.</p>
<p>Singh, however, will never see another Holi.</p>
<p>On his way to Srinagar with more than 2,500 CRPF personnel, he was in one of 78 vehicles shredded by the blast when Jaish-e-Mohammad operative Adil Ahmad Dar rammed his explosives-laden SUV into the convoy. None of the occupants of Singh&#8217;s vehicle survived.</p>
<p>Jairam Singh, a former serviceman in the Border Security Force, got to know late Thursday that his younger brother would not be coming home. “My brother sacrificed his life for the country. The entire village is proud of that,” Jairam Singh told Asia Times.“But, our young men are being killed every day. Enemies of the country need to be curbed, or else soldiers will continue to die.”</p>
<p>The constable is survived by wife Renu and a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.Udham Singh Nagar district magistrate Niraj Khairwal said Virendra’s funeral will be conducted with full state honors once his remains reach his native village.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The terrorist attack on the CRPF convoy</a> on the Jammu-Srinagar highway near Awantipora killed 42 and left more than 30 severely injured on Thursday afternoon. They are just the latest killings in the troubled Kashmir region, long a tinderbox where Islamic militants battle against the rule of New Delhi. In recent years, there has been a steady rise in local recruits to terrorist units, as well as cross-border infiltration by militants, such as members of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group.</p>
<p>Perhaps sensing the mood of national fury released by the attack, New Delhi sent a strong message to Islamabad on Friday, withdrawing the latter&#8217;s Most Favored Nation status with immediate effect.</p>
<p>But far beyond political chambers, the attack&#8217;s aftershocks were felt in villages nationwide. As news of the deaths of soldiers from more than 16 states reached their respective districts, anguished Indians commiserated &#8211; and took to the streets in protest.</p>
<p><strong>Impacts nationwide</strong></p>
<p>In Assam, where Bongaigaon district lost two soldier sons &#8211; Pabitra Barman and Hitesh Chandra Sarkar&#8211;several organizations staged demonstrations, burning Pakistan flags and shouting slogans against the neighboring country.</p>
<p>The general budget for 2019-2020 was to be tabled in Uttarakhand Assembly on Friday. That was postponed until Monday as news of two of the state’s soldiers who were killed in the attack reached their home state.</p>
<p>The impact of the explosion was felt in provinces as far distant as Bihar and Karnataka.</p>
<p>“He had told me he would be home in 15 days to look for a suitable boy for our eldest daughter. Instead, news of his death arrived first,” an inconsolable Babita Devi, wife of Sanjay Kumar Sinha, said to Asia Times.</p>
<p>Sinha, along with Ratan Kumar Thakur, hailing from Bihar’s Patna and Bhagalpur districts, respectively, died in the attack.</p>
<p>Sinha, posted to the 176th battalion of the CRPF in Jammu, had resumed duty just a week ago, promising to return home in a fortnight. He is survived by his wife and three children. His daughters have graduated; his son is preparing for medical exams.</p>
<p>Gloom has descended over Patna, but Babita Devi’s grief was unparalleled as fellow villagers and the media crowded around her home. She was<strong> </strong>crying and beating her chest when Asia Times reporters visited her “How will I marry off my daughters? How will my son complete his studies?” she asked, shock and trauma writ large on her face.</p>
<p>There were equally emotive scenes in Kahalgaon block’s Ratanpur village, where Ratan, who was posted with the 45th battalion of the CRPF, stayed. Minutes before his death, he had called up his wife, Rajnandini Kumari, to inform her that he and his colleagues were leaving for Srinagar and would reach it by 5 pm.</p>
<p>His father, Ram Niranjan, told Asia Times, “My daughter-in-law is pregnant; he had promised to come home this Holi and celebrate the festival with us…I have lost everything, but I am not worried for myself. I don’t know how my daughter-in-law will live without him.”</p>
<p>Ratan, who has a four-year-old son, Krishna, was Ram Niranjan’s only child. “I worked as a laborer, sold juice and hawked wares to earn enough so that he could complete his studies,&#8221; Niranjam said. &#8220;Our financial situation had started improving only recently, and now, he has left us.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Mourning in Mandya</h4>
<p>Karnataka lost a son, too, with the death of Guru H, 33, who hailed from Mandya district. After completing his training, he had joined the CRPF in 2011 and was posted with the 94th battalion in Jharkhand. He was later transferred to Srinagar.</p>
<p>The eldest son of Honnayya and Chikkolamma from Gudigere Colony, Guru had two brothers—Madhu, who works at the Karnataka Electricity Board office, and Anand, who is a home guard. The parents run an ironing shop.</p>
<p>A year back, Guru had moved into his new home; 10 months prior to that, he had married his uncle’s daughter Kalavathi from Sasalapura, Ramanagara district.</p>
<p>Just before his 15-day leave came to an end, Chikkolamma had appealed to him to leave his job and return home. Asia Times has learned that Guru refused, saying: “I want to serve my country; there are many soldiers like me there, and all we want to do is protect our fellow citizens.”</p>
<p>A friend of Guru’s from primary school, Mahadev, remembers him as a humble man who would mingle with everyone despite his prestigious government job. “He was never dominating or threw around attitude. He was a pure soul,” the friend said.</p>
<p><strong>Simmering rage</strong></p>
<p>Meanwhile, Indians&#8217; fury against Pakistan, and the terrorists who many believe are incubated in the country, is flaring. Many are demanding New Delhi prosecute the struggle more aggressively.</p>
<p>“How long will our children keep dying like this?&#8221; asked one Patna resident. &#8220;The time has come for the government to launch a final and decisive battle against terrorism.&#8221;</p>
<p>Anger is fieriest among those who suffered losses of family members.</p>
<p>&#8220;The government should have a decisive battle against terrorists and their guardian Pakistan,&#8221; said Jairam Singh, who lost his younger brother. &#8220;Otherwise, the sacrifice of all other soldiers, including my brother, will go in vain.”</p>
<p>“The problem is that our soldiers are being martyred every day on [our] borders,&#8221; Singh&#8217;s father added. &#8220;But, no concrete policy has been put in place, while every other government claims they are fighting against terrorism.”</p>
<p>— <em>With input from Lakshmi Bavge and Syeda Ambia Zahan.</em></p>
https://youtu.be/3rYcsvH88Bg, 122
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistani-terrorists-made-a-big-mistake-modi/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistani-terrorists-made-a-big-mistake-modi/<p>Indian PM says Jaish-e-Mohammed will pay a heavy price for attack on police convoy that killed over 40. Story by Saikat Datta <a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" spellcheck="false" href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?v=3rYcsvH88Bg&amp;redir_token=JAarSw_FMj0jdZnFgInkhcyLZEd8MTU1MDM5Mzk0NEAxNTUwMzA3NTQ0&amp;event=video_description&amp;q=http%3A%2F%2Fati.ms%2FerjNIR" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://ati.ms/erjNIR</a></p>
Social attitudes, activist pressure and political headwinds are impacting South Korea’s dog farmers and restaurateurs
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/from-dog-eaters-to-dog-lovers-koreas-most-notorious-sector-fades-away/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/from-dog-eaters-to-dog-lovers-koreas-most-notorious-sector-fades-away/<p>A pungent odor and deafening barking reveal from afar how 61-year Lee Sang-gu makes a living: The muddy paths of his farm are lined with dozens of rusty metal cages, each filled with several dogs of various breeds including Chihuahuas, Poodles, Maltese and Boston Terriers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some of them will be sold as pets, others for dog meat consumption,” said Lee. “Depending on who bids the most.”</p>
<p>On a recent bright, crisp February morning in Hongseong County in central South Korea, Lee started what has been his daily routine for the last eight years: He pushes along a wheelbarrow filled with brown grits and feeds each of his 200 dogs. His back is bent from decades of hard physical labor.</p>
<p>Lack of choices is what brought him to the dog meat industry, Lee said. Life has not been easy. He ran a pig farm that went bankrupt. For years, he oscillated between unemployment programs and occasional day laboring. Finally, he followed the advice of an old friend to try his luck as dog meat farmer.</p>
<p>But even that business has slowly been worsening. &#8220;Back in the day, young people had already stopped eating dog meat, but nowadays, not even older people consume it anymore&#8221;, he says. Decreasing demand has driven down prices. In 2011 Lee sold a dog for around 200 thousand won (180 US-dollars). That is double what he gets now.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312428" style="width: 512px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312428" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Dog-farmer-Fabien-Kretschmer.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="341" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Dog farmer Lee Sang-gu makes the rounds of his livestock. Photo: Fabian Kretschmer</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>Pets, not eats</strong></p>
<p>According to animal rights activist group Humane Society International there are still up to 17,000 small dog meat farms scattered across the Korean countryside. South Korea is the only country in the world that has spawned a commercial dog meat industry; close to two million dogs are estimated to be consumed every year.</p>
<p>But it is mainly older Koreans who cherish the centuries-old tradition. Usually served in a spicy, peppery stew, dog meat is supposed to help diners cope with the humid summers, and is also believed to enhance male virility. Now, demographic change is shifting attitudes towards dog meat consumption.</p>
<p>&#8220;Among my friends, ten out of ten would not even consider eating dog meat&#8221;, says 21-year old student Kang Na-kyeong: &#8220;The only reason I tried it once is because my grandparents made me do so.&#8221; In reality TV-shows, she says, it is increasingly common to see celebrities adopting dogs from shelters.</p>
<p>Generally, Kang&#8217;s generation perceives dogs as pets rather than dinner.</p>
<p>A representative survey by NGO Last Chance for Animals in April 2018 found that more than 80% of respondents said they have never consumed dog meat; only 1.2% said they would eat it regularly on a monthly basis.</p>
<p>At same time, South Korea&#8217;s pet industry is on a steady rise: In 2017 it was worth $3.4 billion, and is expected to grow by a further $2 billion by 2020.</p>
<p><strong>Politicians wade in</strong></p>
<p>South Korean President Moon Jae-in was the only contender during the 2017 presidential election whose pledges included the topic of animal rights. Amongst other things Moon – a cat owner &#8211; pledged more feeding facilities for stray cats. Yet, he opposed a complete ban on dog meat consumption, saying that it should be phased out instead. Two months after his inauguration he adopted a four-year old black mongrel with the name of &#8220;Tory&#8221; that had been rescued from a dog meat farm by animal rights group CARE.</p>
<p>That very same group came under intense public criticism in January after a whistleblower revealed that the director of CARE had ordered 230 dogs in its shelter to be secretly euthanized. The reason for the order was overcrowding and an inability to find homes for the animals. But it proved bitterly ironical, given that the NGO is known for its activism against the domestic dog meat industry and its &#8220;no-kill policy.&#8221; After the revelation broke, many of CARE&#8217;s donors canceled their support.</p>
<p>Still, the trend rolls looks unstoppable.</p>
<p>Last Saturday, Seoul’s high-profile mayor, Park Won-soon &#8211; who published a thesis about animal rights while studying in the UK in 1991 – vowed to pressure all dog butchers in the capital out of business.</p>
<p>And prior to Park’s statement, last November the central government shut down the Taepyeong-dong complex outside Seoul, widely considered the biggest dog slaughterhouse in the country.</p>
<p>In the sprawling Gyeongdong-market district in northeastern Seoul, outdoor market stalls under rainbow-colored umbrellas offer everything from chili peppers to medical herbs. This used to be a hotspot for the dog meat trade, but on a recent stroll through this traditional market, only two dog butcher shops remained.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312427" style="width: 512px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312427" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/One-of-the-last-two-dog-butcheries-in-Gyeongdong-Market-Thomas-Maresca.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="384" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">One of the last dog butcheries in Seoul&#8217;s Gyeongdong Market. Photo: Thomas Maresca</figcaption></figure>
<p>72-year-old Kim Dae-won, a cheerful man dressed in a black furred leather jacket has been coming here since his early childhood days. He has witnessed the incredible change that Korea – a war-scarred, authoritarian, economic basket case in the 1950s that transitioned to a surging industrial powerhouse and a youthful democracy in the late 1980 – has undergone. Naturally, attitudes have shifted, too.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the past the market was full of people selling dogs in cages&#8221;, says Kim: &#8220;But now eating dogs is mostly seen as a barbaric practice.&#8221; The turning point, he remembers, was the Seoul Olympics of 1988. Then, international animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot, used media to draw attention to the issue.</p>
<p>Thirty years later, western animal rights activists campaigned ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics for an end of the South Korean dog meat industry. Amid rising public pressure, the host government of Gangwon Province requested 40 dog meat restaurants in the region of the Olympic facilities to stop serving dog meat dishes during the Games.</p>
<p><strong>Rehabilitating farmers, dogs</strong></p>
<p>In Hongseon, Lee has, for months, grappled with the idea of closing his dog meat farm. It no longer provides him a living, and neighbors are complaining about the noise and demanding he move his premises.</p>
<p>To help him transform his business, Lee has reached out to animal rights activist group Humane Society International. They provided financial incentives for dog meat farmers willing to leave the industry. Mr. Lee has signed a contract that is binding for 20 years.</p>
<p>Dressed in green jackets, half a dozen staffers from HSI visited Lee’s farm to close it for good. They broke the cages and placed the dogs in plastic boxes. They are to be driven to Incheon International Airport, where they will board an Air Canada cargo plane, which will carry them to Montreal. From there, they are to be driven to shelters in the greater Chicago area. Most are expected to find new homes within weeks.</p>
<p>Lee’s farm is the 14th in South Korea that the Washington-based animal rights organization is closing down. With a price tag of $100,000 upwards, each of their week-long operations is pricey and logistically complex. In total, they have rescued over 1,300 dogs from South Korea since 2015.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312425" style="width: 512px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312425" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HSI-dog-rescue-Thomas-Maresca.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="384" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Kelly O&#8217;Meara, an official with Humane Society International, holds a dog being rescued from a farm in Hongseong. Photo: Thomas Maresca</figcaption></figure>
<p>&#8220;We have been overjoyed with the achievements of the last months,” said Kelly O&#8217;Meara from HSI. “We are seeing changes taking place at a much faster pace than we imagined.”</p>
<p>Lee is not sure yet what he will do with his future: &#8220;I could imagine myself working as a security guard for an apartment complex,” he mused. “Or I could take a computer course to improve my chances of finding a job.”</p>
<p>He says he is happy to finally be able to close down his farm. Still, observing the animal activists carrying away the dogs from his farm leaves him with an empty feeling. After all, Lee says, those dogs had been his companions for the last eight years.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
UN plan is a funding wish list but some local groups feel that foreign aid workers are already living high on the hog
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/un-seeks-nearly-1-billion-for-rohingya-refugees/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/un-seeks-nearly-1-billion-for-rohingya-refugees/<p>On February 15, the United Nations (UN) released its Joint Response Plan 2019 (JRP) in Geneva, asking donors for an additional US$920.5 million to support around 900,000 Rohingya refugees stuck in squalid camps in Bangladesh.</p>
<p>JRP 2019 is a planning document reflecting a total wish list for funds that will be used by UN agencies and more than 100 other foreign and national non-governmental organizations.Funds requested also include various forms of support for 336,000 Bangladeshis living in “host communities” near the camps.</p>
<p>The document itself is a 94-page <em>opus maximus</em> that is heavy reading for the acronym-challenged faint of heart.</p>
<p>It outlines in exhaustive detail the needs and justifications for programs across multiple “sectors”, including for protection, food security, health, emergency communications and logistics, to name a few.</p>
<p>The UN won’t likely receive that entire sum: The 2018 JRP requested $950.8 million, 69% of which was eventually provided by bilateral and private donors.</p>
<p>The Rohingya refugee crisis made global headlines in 2017 when 745,000 people, including an estimated 400,000 children, fled violence in Myanmar.</p>
<figure id="attachment_248515" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-248515" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bangladesh-Myanmar-Rohingya-Refugees-Kutupalong-Camp-Coxs-Bazar-August-13-2018-e1550289474679.jpg" alt="A Rohingya refugee man stands before Kutupalong camp in Ukhia near Cox's Bazar on August 13, 2018.Photo: AFP/Chandan Khanna" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bangladesh-Myanmar-Rohingya-Refugees-Kutupalong-Camp-Coxs-Bazar-August-13-2018-e1550289474679.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bangladesh-Myanmar-Rohingya-Refugees-Kutupalong-Camp-Coxs-Bazar-August-13-2018-e1550289474679-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bangladesh-Myanmar-Rohingya-Refugees-Kutupalong-Camp-Coxs-Bazar-August-13-2018-e1550289474679-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Rohingya refugee man stands at Kutupalong camp in Ukhia near Cox&#8217;s Bazar, August 13, 2018. Photo: AFP/Chandan Khanna</figcaption></figure>
<p>As many as 10,000 Muslim Rohingya are estimated to have been killed by the military and Buddhist civilians during the Myanmar military’s “clearance operations” launched in response to insurgent attacks on police border outposts.</p>
<p>Myanmar’s military carried out a “widespread and systematic attack on [civilians]” that included “murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and enslavement” that constituted “genocidal intent”, a UN Fact-Finding Mission report released in Geneva last August found.</p>
<p>The UN defines genocide as acts meant to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. UN investigators recommended that Myanmar’s commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under law.</p>
<p>Since 2017 and the massive humanitarian response to support the refugees, the situation has moved from crisis to something a bit less. “We’ve come a long way since then,” said Jon Hoisaeter, Senior Coordinator for the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) on February 15.</p>
<p>The ISCG is a UN entity set up to manage the multi-institutional, multi-million dollar refugee relief effort, which works in tandem with the Bangladeshi government. “The emergency is not over, but the situation has stabilized,” he added.</p>
<p>One issue donors face, however, is an increasing impatience on the part of Bangladeshis, who initially welcomed the Rohingya and likely saved hundreds of thousands of lives.</p>
<figure id="attachment_180574" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-180574" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-Coxs-Bazar-September-14-2017-e1550289580912.jpg" alt="Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive aid distributed by local organisations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui: &quot;I was going past one of the refugee camps when I stopped to photograph this aid distribution along a road. As the aid distribution got a bit chaotic, volunteers started throwing water bottles from the truck towards the refugees. I placed myself to get the newly made camp in the background as it showed how newly arrived Rohingyas living in these small makeshift shelters were in desperate need of aid.&quot; REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui" width="1588" height="1072" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-Coxs-Bazar-September-14-2017-e1550289580912.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-Coxs-Bazar-September-14-2017-e1550289580912-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-Coxs-Bazar-September-14-2017-e1550289580912-1568x1058.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rohingya refugees receive aid distributed by local organizations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox&#8217;s Bazar, September 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui</figcaption></figure>
<p>But with each passing day there are more Bangladeshis wondering if the refugees will ever go home and what that means for one of the world’s poorest nations, a country that itself faces enormous problems of poverty, pollution, unemployment, corruption, and a general lack of resources to tackle any of these issues.</p>
<p>There is also the perception in some circles that Bangladeshis are getting left out of the relief effort while foreign aid workers are living high on the hog.</p>
<p>“Watchdog accuses INGOs of living the good life on Rohingya aid money” ran the headline on one story in the Dhaka Tribune on February 12. The article reported on a press conference held by the Cox’s Bazar CSO-NGO Forum (CCNF), a consortium of local groups that aims to uphold localization and accountability in the handling of the refugee crisis.</p>
<p>At the event, CCNF’s Co-Chairman Abu Morshed Chowdhury Khola read from a statement: “There are 123 local and international NGOs working in the Rohingya camps…They raise funds claiming to rehabilitate and assist the Rohingya, but spend money on luxury SUVs, five-star hotel rooms, and other amenities.”</p>
<p>He called for more control of the relief effort by Bangladeshis and for foreign donors to employ at least 70% of staff from local communities near the camps.</p>
<p>UN figures indicate that 97% of their personnel on the ground&#8211;12,000 in total—are Bangladeshis, while only 330 are foreign expatriates. The problem is that people living near the camps have a generally low education and many are illiterate, some here claim.</p>
<p>“With regard to localization, we need to agree on a road map on how to make progress,” said ISCG’s Hoisaeter. The whole issue of dealing with “host communities” is a constant concern for donors.</p>
<figure id="attachment_200753" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-200753" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-September-2017-e1550289750405.jpg" alt="Rohingya refugees walk after crossing the Naf river from Myanmar into Bangladesh in Whaikhyang.Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-September-2017-e1550289750405.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-September-2017-e1550289750405-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Myanmar-Bangladesh-Rohingya-Refugees-September-2017-e1550289750405-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rohingya refugees walk after crossing the Naf river from Myanmar into Bangladesh in Whaikhyang. Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour</figcaption></figure>
<p>“It’s critical because it’s like having a city the size of Seattle land in your back yard,” said Richard Ragan, World Food Programme’s (WFP) Representative in Bangladesh.</p>
<p>WFP, for its part, plans to source an increasing amount of rice and other food products given to refugees from local markets. “Over the next six months our goal is to shift everything to a [local] commercial transaction. So you could see millions more dollars moving around the local economy,” Ragan said.</p>
<p>Over the longer term the lingering elephant in the room is whether the Rohingya will ever go back to Myanmar. One current plan on the table is the idea to establish “safe havens” in Myanmar for the Rohingya that would be monitored by China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.</p>
<p>Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen publicly endorsed the idea on February 9.</p>
<p>Critics have called the plan basically a system of “concentration camps” where there would be no freedom of movement for the Rohingya. Nor would it deal with the nagging issue of giving the Rohingya full citizenship rights, a request Myanmar authorities have persistently refused.</p>
<p>For Rohingya refugee Roshid Ahmad, a 58-year-old father of five who lives in Kutupalong camp &#8211; now the largest refugee camp in the world&#8211; the issue is simple. “Without justice, I will never go home.”</p>
Ethnic Karen rebels are holding out for peace after seven decades of war, but their ceasefires with the government are breaking down
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-revolution-that-will-never-die-in-myanmar/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/the-revolution-that-will-never-die-in-myanmar/<p>On a misty January morning, several thousand ethnic Karen people gathered near a mountaintop at Law Khee Lar, a rural part of their home state in Myanmar near the Thailand border.</p>
<p>Law Khee Lar is located in territory controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU), a political organization with an armed wing that has been fighting against state forces for seven decades, in one of the world’s longest running civil wars.</p>
<p>On this particular day, Karen people gathered to celebrate the 70<sup>th</sup> Karen Revolution Day, an annual commemoration of the beginning of the KNU’s Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA) long armed struggle for self-determination and rights.</p>
<p>“I came here because I wanted to celebrate with my Karen brothers and sisters, and because I want to see us all united,” said Somchai, a Karen pastor who had travelled more than 100 miles from Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province to attend the ceremony in Kayin, also known as Karen, state.</p>
<p>“Things are good for the Karen people living in Thailand, but those in Myanmar still face many problems,” he said.</p>
<p>After seven decades of civil war, many parts of southeastern Myanmar are more peaceful than ever due to ceasefires signed between the KNU and the central government. But tensions have endured over several contentious issues that analysts warn could unravel what is already a fragile peace agreement.</p>
<p>The Karen’s struggle for self-determination officially began on January 31, 1949, after the Burmese military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched several attacks on Karen communities soon after independence was achieved from British colonial rule.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312132" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312132" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Karen-National-Liberation-Army-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="887" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Karen-National-Liberation-Army-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Karen-National-Liberation-Army-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow-768x426.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Karen-National-Liberation-Army-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow-1568x869.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Karen soldiers march at Law Khee Lar during the 70th Karen Revolution Day, Kayin State, Myanmar, January 31, 2019. Photo: Oliver Slow</figcaption></figure>
<p>The initial attacks came largely in response to Karen forces taking control of several towns across lower Myanmar, then known as Burma, including at Insein north of the then capital of Rangoon, as Yangon was previously known.</p>
<p>Over the next several months, Karen forces, led by the charismatic Saw Ba U Gyi, came close to taking the then-capital from the government, but were eventually driven out. The Karens attempted to establish an independent Karen state in April 1949.</p>
<p>During direct military rule, the KNU emerged as one of the strongest rivals to the central Myanmar government.</p>
<p>However, decades of intense fighting appeared to come to an end in 2012, when the KNU and the government signed bilateral ceasefires, as part of renewed efforts in then President Thein Sein’s peace process.</p>
<p>In October 2015, the KNU was the largest and most influential ethnic armed group to sign the government’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), a misnomer considering the many ethnic armed groups who have refused to sign and continue to fight.</p>
<p>“The NCA is a new page in history and a product of brave and energetic negotiations,” Saw Mutu Say Po, chairman of the KNU, said at the agreement’s signing ceremony.</p>
<p>Three years later, the NCA hasn&#8217;t panned out as promised. An April 2018 report by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), a Karen-led advocacy group, said that the Tatmadaw has “repeatedly breached” the terms of the 2012 and 2015 ceasefires in Hpapun township.</p>
<figure id="attachment_216325" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-216325 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Myanmar-Karen-KNU-Insurgents-Bullets-2012-e1550219258685.jpg" alt="A Karen insurgent soldier holds a rocket launcher while standing guard at Oo Kray Kee village in Karen State near the Thai-Myanmar border in a file photo. Photo: AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul " width="1600" height="1036" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Myanmar-Karen-KNU-Insurgents-Bullets-2012-e1550219258685.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Myanmar-Karen-KNU-Insurgents-Bullets-2012-e1550219258685-768x497.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Myanmar-Karen-KNU-Insurgents-Bullets-2012-e1550219258685-1568x1015.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Karen insurgent soldier on guard at Oo Kray Kee village inear the Thai-Myanmar border in a file photo. Photo: AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hpapun has been the scene of renewed fighting between the Tatmadaw and KNLA in the past year, skirmishes that have displaced thousands of Karens. In October 2018, the KNU announced it was temporarily suspending its participation in the peace process, expressing dissatisfaction with the result of peace talks held with the government that month.</p>
<p>The Karen Revolution Day ceremony was an opportunity for Karen leaders to speak directly to their people, and urge them to have patience with the peace process.</p>
<p>“The Karen people have long suffered under the Burmese military; we have tried many times for ceasefires, but this has not worked,” General Saw Johnny, general officer commanding the KNLA, said at the ceremony. “But we must still be patient. The situation has had some positive moments, and negatives ones, but we should not give up on peace.”</p>
<p>The KNU’s strength throughout the 20<sup>th</sup> century and the early 21<sup>st</sup> century allowed it to establish control of large parts of Myanmar’s eastern Kayin state. As such, significant parts of the state are under direct KNU control, while others are held by the government or a mixture of both.</p>
<p>Operating as a parallel government to the central administration now in Naypyidaw, the KNU has established a range of services for people living in the areas it controls, including taxation, education, healthcare and justice.</p>
<p>Partly as a result of these services, the KNU still enjoy widespread support across the state, according to a recent research report published by the international nongovernmental organization Saferworld and the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN).</p>
<p>Although respondents’ interactions with the KNU and central government were roughly the same, the report found that the KNU enjoyed “notable legitimacy” among much of the surveyed population, especially ethnic Karens.</p>
<figure id="attachment_285765" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-285765 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Myanmar-Karen-State-Map-e1550219376277.jpg" alt="Myanmar-Karen State-Map" width="1600" height="1056" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Myanmar-Karen-State-Map-e1550219376277.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Myanmar-Karen-State-Map-e1550219376277-768x507.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Myanmar-Karen-State-Map-e1550219376277-1568x1035.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Source: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>Asked who they wanted to govern their area, 45% of the more than 2,000 respondents said the KNU, compared to 20% for the Myanmar government. Over 23% responded “none” and 9% said they didn’t know.</p>
<p>Theo Hollander, justice and security adviser for Saferworld Myanmar, said that the KNU’s support is linked to ethnic and linguistic ties, as well as the fact that the organization is strongly embedded in the local community. Another factor is the historic human rights abuses by the Tatmadaw, he said.</p>
<p>“If your village has been burned down by government forces, it’s clearly not going to contribute to you liking them,” Hollander told Asia Times.</p>
<p>“That has a huge impact, and that impact is not going to just be forgotten if there’s a new government,” he said, referring to the National League for Democracy-led administration that rose to elected power in 2016, ending decades of direct military rule.</p>
<p>His group’s report also found that the patterns of human rights abuses had changed since the 2012 ceasefires. Previously the main forms of violence and abuse were forced labor and portering, but since the ceasefire land grabbing has become more prominent, with one in 47 surveyed households saying they had land seized over the period.</p>
<p>Hollander said the vast majority of land grabs since 2012 had taken place in areas under full or partial government control. The Tatmadaw’s True News Information Team, the military’s de facto spokesman office, could not be reached for comment on the claims.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312140" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312140" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Soldiers-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow-e1550219734280.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="860" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Soldiers-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow-e1550219734280.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Soldiers-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow-e1550219734280-768x413.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Myanmar-Karen-Soldiers-Karen-Revolution-Day-January-31-2019-Oliver-Slow-e1550219734280-1568x843.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Karen soldiers walk towards Karen villagers on a misty morning at Law Khee Lar during the 70th Revolution Day celebration, January 31, 2019. Photo: Oliver Slow</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hollander said that the central government in Naypyidaw could improve trust with Karen communities, and other ethnic minorities who have suffered decades of abuses, by recognizing their grievances.</p>
<p>“We found that there needs to be an acknowledgement of these wounds,” said Hollander. &#8220;[Many] households suffered abuses – and these are not minor things – and are things that the government, at a minimum, should recognize” via a public apology, or events or ceremonies to acknowledge the suffering caused, he said.</p>
<p>Hollander added that the KNU and other armed actors had also committed abuses over the years, but that their actions were “not as systemic” as the Tatmadaw’s. Nor has the ceasefire resolved the legacies of the civil war.</p>
<p>There are currently an estimated 100,000 Karen refugees still living in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. While many have integrated into Thai society and its economy, several still want to return home.</p>
<p>“It was horrible [to leave home]. It’s very sad to lose your home. You and your family grew up there,” said one Karen woman at the celebration ceremony who fled the conflict and has lived in Thailand for 12 years. “Thailand is safer, but it is still not my home. I hope to go back one day, but not for now.”</p>
<p>Some repatriated efforts have started, including in 2018 when UNHCR helped to facilitate the return of 93 refugees from Thailand to Myanmar. But Hollander and others warn against rushing their repatriation into an unsafe environment.</p>
<figure id="attachment_280385" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-280385" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/kids-barbed-wire-Mae-La.jpg" alt="Karen children next to a barbed wire fence at Mae La refugee camp in Mae Sot near the Thai-Myanmar border. At least 87,000 people remain in the camps which were set up in 1984. Photo: AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul " width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/kids-barbed-wire-Mae-La.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/kids-barbed-wire-Mae-La-580x387.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Karen children at Mae La refugee camp in Mae Sot near the Thai-Myanmar border in a file photo. Photo: AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul</figcaption></figure>
<p>“If the factors that drive conflict in the first place are not addressed, then what reason do people have to return?” he said, referring to ongoing instability in the state.</p>
<p>“There is a ceasefire, and it’s the longest ceasefire in the conflict, but there have been ceasefires before and they have been broken. What confidence do people have that that won’t happen again? … Unless there’s fundamental change in how the country is organized, there won’t be peace.”</p>
<p>As he stood watching the Karen’s 70<sup>th</sup> revolution anniversary ceremony, Lay Ka Paw, a KPSN coordinator, said he hoped the event would showcase how much the Karen people want peace. “Karen people want a federal country in the future,” he said. “This is the biggest dream of the Karen people, but it is still only a dream.”</p>
The UK has joined Germany in resisting calls to ban Chinese tech, while Washington fails to craft a coherent policy
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/in-huawei-battle-signs-of-us-decline/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/in-huawei-battle-signs-of-us-decline/<p>Last year, US intelligence services convinced a group of allies in quick succession to ostracize Chinese telecommunications firms. Australia, New Zealand and Japan all effectively banned the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker, China’s Huawei.</p>
<p>But the campaign has stalled in Europe. Not a single European country has unveiled measures that would ban gear from Huawei – or ZTE, China’s fellow telecoms national champion.</p>
<p>Germany, a key NATO ally of the United States, went as far as to tell the press last week that they do not seek to ban Huawei, despite Washington’s insistence that Chinese companies pose a security risk.</p>
<p>Even some in the UK, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network with the US, are pushing back. Robert Hannigan, the former Director of Britain’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, called US assertions “nonsense.” On Friday, Alex Younger, the current head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service &#8211; also known as MI6 &#8211; suggested he doesn’t support a ban, telling reporters: “it’s more complicated than in or out.”</p>
<p><strong>Decline of US leadership</strong></p>
<p>In the end, some US policy experts lament, Washington’s fight against Huawei is really about the failure to form a coherent strategy to be competitive in high-tech industries.</p>
<p>“[The issue of Huawei] is or at least should be not about playing defense vis-a-vis competitiveness,” Robert Atkinson, who worked on China policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration, told Asia Times.</p>
<p>“Overall the idea that the US can keep its global market share in advanced technology industries without both strongly pushing back against Chinese ‘innovation mercantilism’ and putting in place a robust domestic innovation agenda is, I believe, misplaced. We have to do both,” argued Atkinson, who is also the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which has been ranked as one of the world’s top technology policy think tanks.</p>
<p>Under the Trump administration, the situation deteriorated. A head of the White House Office of Science and Technology was not appointed until last month, leaving the body largely unstaffed since Trump took office in 2017.</p>
<p>“The fact that President Trump took so long to appoint the head of OSTP suggests that the President does not see this as a priority,” Atkinson said.</p>
<p>There are signs that the White House is trying to remedy this situation. Following the belated appointment of a top science advisor several weeks ago, Trump signed an executive order on maintaining leadership in artificial intelligence this week. But it does not provide any funding, critics note, and comes more than five years after China mapped out a strategy of broad support for high-tech industries. China’s policies call for national champions such as Huawei to develop key technologies such as 5G.</p>
<p><strong>Floundering campaign against Huawei</strong></p>
<p>On the defensive side, the US has failed to make convincing arguments to allies.</p>
<p>Two simple reasons are driving European resistance: 1) the US has yet to publicly offer specific examples of what security risks the Chinese firms pose, and 2) Huawei offers better equipment at a lower cost.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to know for sure whether or to what extent the fears around Huawei’s equipment are overblown or not,” Doug Brake, Director of Broadband and Spectrum Policy at the aforementioned ITIF, told Asia Times.</p>
<p>“Agencies within the US government like FBI and NSA that have claimed that there are security vulnerabilities or security concerns have not made any direct, specific examples,” he said.</p>
<p>John Costello, a former National Security Agency Officer who is now an officer at the Department of Homeland Security, stressed that the US is not yet prepared to offer such important details.</p>
<p>“Right now it’s difficult […] to really make a set of visceral examples that I think the public would understand,” Costello said at an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week.</p>
<p>“Once we have a better understanding and can give better concrete examples that we think the public would digest I think you’ll see more from us on that,” he said, adding: “right now it’s just discussions with industry and really trying to understand the threat better.”</p>
<p><strong>Paying a high price</strong></p>
<p>“It will be a more expensive, perhaps not as high-performance network, keeping Huawei out of the market. That is not a costless decision,” Brake of ITIF said.</p>
<p>Major carriers in countries now resisting the US ban – including Vodafone in the UK and Deutsche Telekom in Germany – have warned that the financial costs and service disruption will be severe.</p>
<p>MI6 chief Younger, meanwhile, said the principal concern should be quality, and that does not need to come at the expense of security.</p>
<p>“We need to take a principles-based approach to this and the first is around quality,” Younger said in remarks to reporters Friday, as reported by Bloomberg. “This has got nothing to do with the country of origin; we should be insisting on the highest level of quality in any form of technology platform or service we choose to use and in particular security quality.”</p>
<p><strong>US resorts to coercion</strong></p>
<p>While the Washington intelligence community sorts out exactly what the risks are, top officials are now using threats to get allies to fall in line. The US ambassador to the EU warned in an interview last week that countries “may find themselves in a disadvantage in dealing with [the United States],” should they dismiss the security concerns.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a similar warning during a visit to Hungary on Monday.</p>
<p>“We have seen this around the world, it also makes it more difficult for America to be present; that is, if that equipment is co-located in places where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them,” Pompeo said.</p>
<p>While Vice-President Mike Pence praised Poland for helping to “protect the telecommunications sector from China,&#8221; when traveling to the country this week, there is no sign that Warsaw is ready to give up Huawei gear.</p>
<p>“We don’t see slowdown in sales on Huawei equipment here,” Huawei’s standards manager in Europe, Goerg Mayer, said in a news conference. But, he acknowledged, “if the situation continues, at some point it will impact our business as well.”</p>
As the trade talks continue with Washington, Beijing has more economic problems to solve at home
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-might-have-to-cross-those-thin-red-lines/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-might-have-to-cross-those-thin-red-lines/<p class="p1">Red is considered an auspicious color in Chinese culture. But not when it comes to balancing the books in the world’s second-largest economy.</p>
<p class="p1">As Beijing juggles a myriad of problems from the slowdown in growth to cooling consumer spending, President Xi Jinping’s government knows it needs to end the trade war with the United States.</p>
<p class="p1">High-level talks <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-risks-being-shunted-into-trade-talks-cul-de-sac/">resumed in Beijing on Thursday</a> with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin heading the American delegation.</p>
<p class="p2">But while the two-day discussions with Vice-Premier Liu He’s team will grab the global headlines, China’s broader economic malaise appears to be gathering pace.</p>
<p class="p1">Earlier this week, the US multinational investment bank, <a href="https://www.morganstanley.com/">Morgan Stanley, wheeled out</a> a report, predicting that China would become more reliant on foreign capital.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;The economy&#8217;s current account is in long-term decline and the future growth of the economy will be increasingly dependent on foreign capital,&#8221; the report revealed.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Aging population&#8217;</h4>
<p class="p1">A breakdown of the numbers by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/china-economy-morgan-stanley-predicts-chinas-account-deficit-in-2019.html?utm_source=SupChina+Free+Newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=f4292b5498-20180920+newsletter_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_96063830a5-f4292b5498-165076183">Morgan Stanley showed</a> that the country’s current account surplus slipped from 10.3% of its GDP in the third quarter of 2017 to 0.4% during the same period last year.</p>
<p class="p1">An “aging population” and changing export patterns were major factors in the decline, it stated.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We expect China to shift to an annual current account deficit from 2019 onwards due to a slipping national saving rate amid an aging population,&#8221; Morgan Stanley said.</p>
<p class="p1">Economic headwinds have certainly increased in the past 12 months, despite better than expected <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-02/14/c_137821234.htm">export numbers this week</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">A raft of data at the end of last year illustrated the depth of the downturn.</p>
<p class="p1">Last month, <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/">the National Bureau of Statistics</a> announced that GDP growth for 2018 slowed to a level not seen since 1990, as manufacturing stalled and consumer spending dipped.</p>
<p class="p1">Smartphone shipments also dropped while car sales plunged 5.8% last year to 22.35 million vehicles. This was the first annual decline since 1990.</p>
<p class="p1">As the economy continues to slow, <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Corporate-China-to-face-a-rush-of-defaults-in-2019">bankruptcies are expected to rise</a> this year, fuelling unemployment fears.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YeXhnRfuT2E?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h4>Unemployment threat</h4>
<p class="p1">Vice-Premier Han Zheng highlighted the dangers at a meeting of the National Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday.</p>
<p class="p1">“We must closely watch changes in the employment situation, strengthen monitoring and warning [systems] for the employment market, prepare related policy contingency plans, and guarantee stable employment,” he told <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-02/12/c_137815999.htm">the state-run</a> Xinhua news agency.</p>
<p class="p1">Han’s comments underlined the threat of surging unemployment, which is a red line that cannot be crossed.</p>
<p class="p1">By the end of 2018, the jobless rate <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-employment-policy/china-to-roll-out-measures-to-maintain-stable-employment-xinhua-idUKKCN1P70EF">hovered around 3.8%</a> with 13.61 million new jobs created last year, which was up 100,000 from 2017.</p>
<p class="p1">“[But in 2019,] China will face large employment pressure, with more than 15 million newly-added job-seekers in urban areas, including a record number of 8.34 million college graduates expected,&#8221; an official from the <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-employment-policy/china-to-roll-out-measures-to-maintain-stable-employment-xinhua-idUKKCN1P70EF">Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security</a> said.</p>
<p class="p1">With the economic picture merging into an array of distorted colors, resolving the long-running trade war has now become a priority for Beijing even if it means crossing a few red lines.</p>
https://youtu.be/YeXhnRfuT2E, 92
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-might-have-to-cross-those-thin-red-lines-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-might-have-to-cross-those-thin-red-lines-2/More than 30% of top 100 developers saw decline on contract sales attributable to shareholders
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/housing-market-continues-to-cool-on-january-stats/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/housing-market-continues-to-cool-on-january-stats/<p class="p1">Sales of the top 100 real estate developers continued their downward freefall in January, a trend that has continued since the third quarter of last year, <a href="https://www.yicai.com/news/100113514.html"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">According to CRIC, a property big data service provider, more than 30% of the top 100 developers saw a year-on-year decline on contract sales attributable to shareholders last month. Among them, 13 developers saw a decrease of more than 30%, and 22 of them fell by less than 30%.</p>
<p class="p1">Leading developers like Country Garden said its total contract sales attributable to shareholders in January was approximately 33.07 billion, which fell by 52.2% when compared with the 69.19-billion-yuan in the same period last year.</p>
<p class="p1">That of Vanke was 48.88 billion yuan, down 28.1% year-on-year. While Evergrande also saw a 32.9% decline year-on-year, recording 43.17 billion yuan.</p>
<p class="p1">Insiders think the housing market will not have many breakthroughs in sales in February due to the Spring Festival holiday.</p>
China received more than 415 million tourists during the annual holiday last week, an increase of 7.6%
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/domestic-tourism-gets-chinese-new-year-boost/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/domestic-tourism-gets-chinese-new-year-boost/<p class="p1">China received a total 415 million of tourists during the Chinese New Year holiday last week, an increase of 7.6% from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2968790">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Tourism income has also reached 513.9 billion yuan, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year, the ministry said.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, the number of outbound visits increased by over 10% during the holiday. A total of 7.22 million of residents went aboard for a private reason, a rise of 15.97% year-on-year, <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-02/10/c_1124096320.htm">Xinhua news agency</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The top ten overseas destinations include Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States and Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, Xinhua said.</p>
Sales of domestic green food, smart home appliances and digital products report rapid growth
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/retail-sales-hit-one-trillion-yuan-during-holiday/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/retail-sales-hit-one-trillion-yuan-during-holiday/<p class="p1">Retail and catering enterprises nationwide have achieved a sales record of about 1.005 trillion yuan (US$149 billion) during the Chinese New Year holiday, a rise of 8.5% from the same period last year, <a href="http://finance.chinanews.com/cj/2019/02-11/8750412.shtml">China News Service</a> reported citing data released by the Ministry of Commerce.</p>
<p class="p1">The sales of domestic green food, smart home appliances, new digital products and local speciality products have maintained rapid growth during the holiday.</p>
<p class="p1">Shopping malls and outlets which integrated the functions of shopping, catering and entertainment were also popular among Chinese. The sales of seven key shopping centres in Shanghai increased by more than 20% year-on-year.</p>
<p class="p1">Experiential consumption such as leisure travel and watching movies are also very popular and on the rise. For the first six days of the holiday, the movie box office exceeded 5 billion yuan and the Forbidden City in Beijing received nearly 500,000 tourists.</p>
Long-term investors that control funds and annuities will be introduced to participate in the capital increase
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-to-boost-capital-in-commercial-banks/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-to-boost-capital-in-commercial-banks/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s State Council announced following its latest executive meeting that the government will support commercial banks to replenish their capital demands by issuing multiple replenishment tools, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2971595">The Paper</a> said.</p>
<p class="p1">Long-term investors that control funds and annuities will be introduced to participate in the capital increase, the State Council said.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, commercial bank asset management subsidiaries will be supported in an effort to invest in capital supplementary bonds. Foreign financial institutions will also be encouraged to participate in bond market transactions.</p>
<p class="p1">The government will also improve the efficiency of giving the green light to perpetual bond issuance for commercial banks, and lower the entry barriers for issuing preferred stocks and convertible bonds, said the State Council.</p>
Smartphone giant spent more than US$21 billion in semiconductor procurement, a rise of 45%
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/how-huawei-become-a-super-buyer-in-the-chip-market/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/how-huawei-become-a-super-buyer-in-the-chip-market/<p class="p1">Huawei is now the world&#8217;s third-largest chip buyer, accounting for 4.4% of the global market share, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2969998">The Paper</a> reported, citing the latest data released by market research firm Gartner.</p>
<p class="p1">In 2018, Huawei spent more than US$21 billion in semiconductor procurement, a rise of 45% from a year earlier.</p>
<p class="p1">Samsung and Apple are still the world&#8217;s two largest chip buyers, accounting for 9.1% and 8.8% of the total market. The two smartphone giants have been the top two global semiconductor buyers since 2012, accounting for a total market share of 19.5% in 2017.</p>
<p class="p1">Huawei aside, there were three more Chinese companies among the top ten global chip buyers last year, namely Lenovo, Xiaomi and BBK Electronics which is related to phone makers Vivo and OPPO.</p>
<p class="p1">The top 10 chip buyers have a global market share of 40.2% in 2018, up from 2017&#8217;s 39.4%.</p>
PBOC says it will relax requirements for the issuance of special bonds for ‘agriculture, rural areas and farmers’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/non-performing-agricultural-loans-to-get-a-break/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/non-performing-agricultural-loans-to-get-a-break/<p class="p1">The People&#8217;s Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance and top regulators in banking, insurance and securities have co-released a guidance to promote rural development with financial services, according to a statement released on the <a href="http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/3761845/index.html">PBOC website</a> late Monday.</p>
<p class="p1">The PBOC said it will moderately relax the requirements for the issuance of special financial bonds for “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.”</p>
<p class="p1">And it will be more tolerant of non-performing agricultural bonds. If the non-performing rate of agriculture-related loans is higher than the annual NPL target of no more than 2%, banks will not have points taken off in the evaluation.</p>
<p class="p1">The authorities will also try to better meet the diversified financing needs of rural revitalization by creating agricultural and rural collaterals, improve the internal credit management mechanism of banks, apply new technologies and strengthen the innovation of financial products and service methods.</p>
Project embodies the integration of next-gen technology, such as cloud computing, big data and AI
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-to-launch-first-5g-smart-highway/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-to-launch-first-5g-smart-highway/<p class="p1">China’s first 5G smart highway project has landed in Hubei province, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2976843">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">At present, it is planning to select the location of the 5G base station and simultaneously carry out intelligent charging tests. Meanwhile, it is also planning to test unmanned self-driving.</p>
<p class="p1">The 5G smart highway is the integration of next-generation Internet technology, such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. It aims to achieve a thorough, real-time and accurate perception of what&#8217;s happening on the highway, monitoring every road and every vehicle and predicting how objects will move on the road.</p>
<p class="p1">The project is led by the Hubei 5G Smart Transportation Joint Innovation Lab co-founded by China Mobile Hubei and two tech companies. By the end of 2018, China Mobile Hubei had built 31 5G base stations in the capital city of Wuhan in Hubei province.</p>
<p class="p1">The company will invest one billion yuan in the province to build 2,000 5G base stations this year.</p>
Action by global central banks to return to the gold standard is a crucial way of fighting inflation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/central-bank-moves-to-increase-gold-reserves/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/central-bank-moves-to-increase-gold-reserves/<p class="p1">The People&#8217;s Bank of China&#8217;s gold reserves, which have remained unchanged for more than two years, have continued to increase over the past two months. This rare increase in holdings has caught the attention of insiders, <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2019-02-13/doc-ihqfskcp4693195.shtml">Beijing Business Today</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">According to the latest official data, the PBOC&#8217;s gold reserves recorded 59.94 million ounces by the end of January, adding 380,000 ounces from December and rising for two consecutive months.</p>
<p class="p1">China&#8217;s central bank is not the only institution buying up gold. Since last year, global central banks have been increasing their gold reserves as well.</p>
<p class="p1">In 2018 global central bank gold reserves increased by 651.5 tons, a rise of 74% year-on-year, the World Gold Council said in a report. Global gold demand also increased by 4%, the report added.</p>
<p class="p1">Wang Hongying, director of the Institution of Financial Derivatives of China, thinks US stocks are at a record high, while US economic growth is relatively weak.</p>
<p class="p1">Once the US economy has a relatively large correction, it will cause a very high premium (of US stocks), resulting in a sharp increase in liquidity. Recent moves by global central banks to return to the gold standard is actually an important way of fighting inflation.</p>
New regulations will actively support foreign employees of domestic listed companies
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/foreign-workers-backed-on-equity-incentives/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/foreign-workers-backed-on-equity-incentives/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s top foreign exchange regulator said on Tuesday that it will actively support foreign employees of domestic listed companies to participate in A share equity incentives, <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2019-02-13/doc-ihrfqzka5293327.shtml">Securities Daily</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The People&#8217;s Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange co-released a new policy to deal with the foreign fund management issues when foreign employees get involved in A share equity incentives.</p>
<p class="p1">The new rule stipulates that domestic listed companies and their foreign employees can directly handle business such as cross-border payment and fund transfer at banks with a registration certificate without applying for prior approval.</p>
<p class="p1">Also, foreign employees of domestic listed companies who participate in equity incentives may use funds derived from their legal income in the territory or funds transferred overseas.</p>
‘We are aiming to be a high-tech enterprise in terms of building houses and property management’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/country-garden-eyes-robotics-and-housing-synergy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/country-garden-eyes-robotics-and-housing-synergy/<p class="p1">Chinese real estate giant Country Garden will place its main focus on property, agriculture and robotics, said Yang Guoqiang, chairman of the board of directors, <a href="https://www.yicai.com/news/100115854.html"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">The company has already set up a subsidiary called Bozhilin, which specializes in robot research, and Yang thinks it is just a matter of time before &#8220;robots build a house.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We are aiming to be a high-tech enterprise in terms of building houses, and also property management,&#8221; said Yang.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, following the cooling of the housing market, Yang believes the real estate industry will still experience a 10-trillion-yuan market per year, as the process of China&#8217;s urbanization and modernization remain unstoppable.</p>
<p class="p1">In 2018, Country Garden topped the list of home sales with 728.69 billion yuan.</p>
Prices in second-tier cities are being significantly affected by the tightening of housing regulations
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/second-hand-housing-facing-downward-pressure/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/second-hand-housing-facing-downward-pressure/<p class="p1">The average price of second-hand homes in January in 100 key cities was 14,902 yuan per square meter, down 1.05% from the previous month, the <a href="https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/gncj/2019-02-14/doc-ihqfskcp4993527.shtml">21st Century Business Herald</a> reported, citing data from <span class="s1">Zhuge.com</span>. It was the fifth consecutive monthly drop.</p>
<p class="p1">According to the report, prices in second-tier cities are significantly affected by the tightening of housing regulations, resulting in downward pressure on the market. The average price of second-hand housing saw the largest month-on-month decrease of 1.14%, compared to that of first- and third/fourth-tier cities, which declined by 1.02% and 0.99% respectively.</p>
<p class="p1">Among the key second-tier cities, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and Chongqing all experienced a significant reduction in transaction volume in January, with Wuhan having the largest decline, reaching a staggering 51.11%.</p>
<p class="p1">Analysts believe the price of used homes in second-tier cities will eventually rebound and stimulate market demand. The acceleration of the urbanization process, the reform of the household registration system and the moderate relaxation of the regulatory policies should all contribute to the latter.</p>
Analysts say upward trend likely a correction following overly-pessimistic market sentiment in 2018
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bullish-a-share-market-could-last-till-mid-march/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/bullish-a-share-market-could-last-till-mid-march/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s A-share market is showing bullish signs, as three major stock indexes simultaneously made significant gains.</p>
<p class="p1">Some analysts say that the A-share market may have passed its most difficult period, and the current strong performance could continue into the middle of March, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2980449">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">As of the close of Wednesday, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.84%, the GEM index rose 1.91% and the Shenzhen Component Index rose 2.01%.</p>
<p class="p1">Kou Wenhong, executive general manager in the research department at Zhongrong Fund, thinks February is a great window for the market to rise, because listed companies&#8217; Q1 performance won&#8217;t be released till April, and economic data such as industrial output, investment and consumption will not be published before mid-March.</p>
<p class="p1">Shi Minjia, a manager at Haifutong Fund, believes the recent upward trend is a correction following overly-pessimistic market sentiment in 2018. Last year, a lot of stocks fell by more than 60% to 70%, and many even fell below net assets per share. Such a low valuation is very attractive to investors.</p>
The guidance aims to establish equal treatment, ensuring the scale of financing is steadily expanding
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/state-council-to-boost-direct-financing-for-firms/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/state-council-to-boost-direct-financing-for-firms/<p>The State Council has released a guidance to strengthen financial services for private enterprises, aiming to increase support to conduct direct financing, <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2986663">The Paper</a> reported.</p>
<p>The guidance, released on Thursday, includes acceleration in the progress of initial public offerings and refinancing reviews, and to study the possibility of expanding the scope and scale of targeted convertible bonds issuance.</p>
<p>The securities regulator will also offer supporting measures such as an IPO green channel for enterprises in poor areas. But it is unclear which type of private firms will receive special support.</p>
<p>The guidance aims to establish equal treatment of financing for all types of enterprises, ensuring that the scale of financing is steadily expanding, financing efficiency is significantly improved, financing costs are gradually reduced and financing difficult is effectively alleviated.</p>
Ministry stats show a 124% increase year-over-year, while high-tech industries report a 113% jump
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-investment-in-china-soars-in-january/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-investment-in-china-soars-in-january/<p class="p1">American investment in China has increased by 124.6% from a year earlier, according to January data released by the Ministry of Commerce, <a href="https://www.yicai.com/news/100116846.html"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">Meanwhile, foreign investment in China&#8217;s high-tech industries, especially high-tech service sector has seen a significant year-on-year increase of 113.4%.</p>
<p class="p1">Gao Feng, the spokesman of the ministry, said the draft investment directory which lists industries open to foreign investment is currently seeking public opinion. The draft added 53 more industries to the list, compared to the previous version.</p>
<p class="p1">Foreign investors are encouraged to park their money in China&#8217;s modern agriculture, ecological construction, advanced manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, high-tech and modern service industries, said Gao, and appear to be responding.</p>
TuSimple announces D round financing led by Sina capital, as accumulated funds reach US$178 million
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/self-driving-truck-startup-nets-us95-mn/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/self-driving-truck-startup-nets-us95-mn/<p class="p1">Chinese driverless truck startup TuSimple announced the completion of US$95-million in D round financing led by Sina Capital, forming a new valuation of more than US$1 billion, <a href="https://www.yicai.com/news/100116626.html"><span class="s1">Yicai.com</span></a> reported.</p>
<p class="p1">As of now, TuSimple&#8217;s accumulated financing has reached US$178 million.</p>
<p class="p1">Founded in 2015, the company has focused on developing a commercial L4 driverless truck solution. The L4 level is highly automated and unmanned which means the machine is responsible for driving behaviour and can be driven without a driver, but only in a limited area.</p>
<p>“After three years of intense focus to reach our technical goals, we have moved beyond research into the serious work of building a commercial solution,” said Xiaodi Hou, the company&#8217;s chief tech officer.</p>
<p class="p1">At present, TuSimple has R&amp;D centers in both China and the US. The demand for trucks in China is about 6 million vehicles, and the US needs about 3.5 million, said Chen Mo, CEO.</p>
<p class="p1">Also, it is estimated that the combined market size of the freight industry of China and the US is as large as US$1.5 trillion, the company said.</p>
Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce is not only popular in Hong Kong households, but also in overseas Chinese restaurants
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/oyster-sauce-king-becomes-third-richest-man-in-hk/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/oyster-sauce-king-becomes-third-richest-man-in-hk/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311834 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p>A common saying is that Hong Kong has been run by men named Li or Lee – the same Chinese character – because many powerful property tycoons carried that popular surname.</p>
<p>&#8220;Superman&#8221; Li Ka-shing of Cheung Kong Holdings was the richest man in the city for two decades, followed by his friend Lee Shau-kee, who owns Henderson Land.</p>
<p>Now, for a change, the third-richest man also has the same surname. Enter Lee Man-tat, chairman of the Lee Kum Kee Group. Lee saw his wealth double to US$17.1 billion, edging out No.4 Joseph Lau, the majority owner of Chinese Estates, according to the Forbes Asia Rich List this month.</p>
<p>For the first time, Lee has broken into the top 10 of the list dominated by Li Ka-shing ($31.7 billion) and Lee Shau-kee ($30 billion). Little was known about Lee Kum Kee, whose group was founded back in 1888 in Nanshui town, Zhuhai, in Guangdong province.</p>
<p>His trademark Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce can be found in almost every household in Hong Kong, as well as in many Chinese restaurants all over the world. The privately-owned Lee Kum Kee Group never discloses any financial data to the public, but it is believed it sells more than 100 million bottles of soy sauce per year.</p>
<p>His family also runs direct marketing firm Infinitus, which tops Amway in distributing health products in China.</p>
<p>With the huge revenue generated from Infinitus, Lee Kum Kee Group made global headlines by buying No.2 Fenchurch Street in London for 1.3 billion pounds ($1.67 billion), the highest price ever paid for a single commercial building in the city. The group also invested at least HK$30 billion in the Hong Kong and overseas property market.</p>
<p>However, it has not all been smooth sailing. Last month, a dozen people filed complaints to the company, saying their family members had died or their health had worsened after consuming the healthcare products of Infinitus.</p>
<p>Infinitus was slammed by the People&#8217;s Daily, a party mouthpiece, on <a href="http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2019-01-19/doc-ihrfqziz9198940.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Weibo</a> due to the complaints. The company said in <a href="https://www.infinitus.com.cn/c/2019-01-20/94583.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">several statements</a> that it has been following all the alleged cases and will remain transparent to the public.</p>
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Another round of discussions are planned for Washington next week in a bid to nail down an agreement
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/economic-chill-hits-china-as-trade-talks-continue/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/economic-chill-hits-china-as-trade-talks-continue/<p class="p1">Freezing temperatures hit Beijing on Friday with a frigid -3 Celsius predicted for late night diners and nightclub revelers.</p>
<p class="p1">While China’s economy is not exactly in an icebox, the latest inflation data released by the <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/sjjd/201902/t20190215_1649157.html">National Bureau of Statistics</a> showed that the cooling business environment had dipped a notch or two.</p>
<p class="p1">The numbers came out just hours before <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/china-might-have-to-cross-those-thin-red-lines/">the US-Sino trade talks</a> wrapped up in the Chinese capital amid signs of hope.</p>
<p class="p1">“It is too early to say China has entered the deflationary [zone], but the risks definitely have heightened,” Raymond Yeung, the chief economist of Greater China at ANZ, said.</p>
<p class="p1">As for the figures, factory inflation slowed for the seventh straight month with the important <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-inflation/chinas-producer-prices-slow-for-seventh-straight-month-raising-deflation-fears-idUSKCN1Q4078">Producer Price Index</a> rising by a meager 0.1% in January compared to the same period in 2018.</p>
<p class="p1">The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-inflation/chinas-producer-prices-slow-for-seventh-straight-month-raising-deflation-fears-idUSKCN1Q4078">Consumer Price Index</a>, which strips out food and energy costs, jumped 1.7% year-on-year. But that was just a slight increase from the 1.8% figure in December.</p>
<h4>Deflationary pressure</h4>
<p class="p1">Still, the PPI stats have fueled concerns of further deflationary pressure which could squeeze corporate profits.</p>
<p class="p1">“With factory-gate deflation likely to deepen in the coming months, we expect policymakers to roll out further measures to ease financial pressure on industrial firms, including cuts to benchmark lending rates,” Julian Evans-Pritchard, a senior China economist at Capital Economics, said.</p>
<p class="p1">Since the third quarter of 2018, the economic picture has become distorted by a raft of depressing data.</p>
<p class="p1">Last month, the <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/">National Bureau of Statistics</a> announced that GDP growth for 2018 slowed to what at first glance appeared a robust 6.6%. In reality, that was the slowest pace in 30 years as manufacturing stalled and consumer spending stagnated.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yOHJdPY6ozY" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">Smartphone shipments also dropped while car sales plunged 5.8% last year to 22.35 million vehicles. Again, that was the first annual decline since 1990.</p>
<p class="p1">But the first real snapshot of <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/carving-out-a-trade-deal-in-the-year-of-the-pig/?_=6277189">the Year of the Pig came</a> earlier this week when the Ministry of Commerce and the statistics bureau reported slumping sales growth for the Chinese festive period.</p>
<p class="p1">During the seven-day holiday, consumers spent 1.01 trillion yuan (US$148.96 billion) at restaurants, shopping centers and online outlets. Yet, even though that was an 8.5% rise compared to 2018, it was still the slowest rate of growth since at least 2011.</p>
<p class="p1">Coupled with the latest inflation numbers, a surge in bankruptcies and the threat of unemployment on the horizon, Beijing is likely to boost measures to stimulate a sluggish economy.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;2019 could see the return of PPI deflation and negative earnings growth,” Larry Hu, the head of <a href="https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/china%E2%80%99s-slowing-facorty-prices-add-to-deflation-concerns">China economics at Macquarie Securities,</a> warned.</p>
<h4>Trade discussions</h4>
<p class="p1">The <a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2019/01/data-dump-illustrates-chinas-economic-challenges/">downturn has certainly focused</a> minds within President Xi Jinping’s inner circle. But it is open to debate whether that urgency spilled over into trade discussions this week.</p>
<p class="p1">Talks between Vice-Premier Liu He’s team and the United States delegation, headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, concluded on Friday.</p>
<p class="p1">Early indications suggested there were still key sticking points, including enforcing any agreement.</p>
<p class="p1">Apart from the ballooning trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy, crucial issues on the US side centered on intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, Beijing’s state-subsidies model and the <a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2018/07/welcome-to-this-brave-new-world-with-chinese-characteristics/">“Made in China 2025” plan</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">“We feel that we have made headway on very, very important, and very difficult issues,&#8221; Lighthizer was reported as saying during <a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2019/01/data-dump-illustrates-chinas-economic-challenges/">a later meeting with Xi</a> with the rest of the US party. &#8220;We have additional work to do but we are hopeful.”</p>
<p class="p1">The state-run news agency <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/">Xinhua even reported that</a> talks will continue in Washington next week, according to remarks made by Xi. But until those “difficult issues” are resolved, it is unlikely the planned mini-summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s head of state will take place.</p>
<p class="p1">If that happens, a new economic Cold War could descend on Beijing with chilling consequences.</p>
Indian PM says Jaish-e-Mohammed will pay a heavy price for attack on police convoy that killed over 40
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/pakistan-terror-group-claims-kashmir-car-bomb/<p>A car-bomb attack in Kashmir on Thursday afternoon killed at least 44 Indian police and left many more injured. Officials said a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into a bus that was part of a huge convoy of more than 2,500 police.</p>
<p>A Pakistan-based terror group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), claimed responsibility for the atrocity and quickly uploaded a video of the alleged suicide bomber, Indian authorities said.</p>
<p>There was an angry reaction to the atrocity in New Delhi, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as &#8220;despicable&#8221;, with fingers pointed at Pakistan. The government has withdrawn the &#8216;Most Favored Nation&#8217; status accorded to its neighbor years ago and further retaliatory moves cannot be ruled out.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to tell the terrorist groups and their masters that they have committed a big mistake. They have to pay a heavy price,&#8221; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after an emergency cabinet meeting. &#8220;If our neighboring country thinks that it will succeed in creating instability through such acts and conspiracies in our country, they should stop dreaming.&#8221;</p>
<p>Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said: &#8220;The Most Favored Nation status stands withdrawn and the Ministry of Commerce will issue the formal notification. India will make all available efforts to ensure Pakistan is isolated.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_312226" style="width: 1143px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312226" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kashmir-bombing-e1550224600852.jpg" alt="" width="1143" height="604" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kashmir-bombing-e1550224600852.jpg 1143w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kashmir-bombing-e1550224600852-768x406.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1143px) 100vw, 1143px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Security forces scour the site of the car bomb attack south of Srinagar. Photo: AFP / Debajyoti Chakraborty / NurPhoto</figcaption></figure>
<h4>Attacker and alleged mastermind named</h4>
<p>Adil Ahmad Dar, a 22-year-old JeM operative has been identified as the man who carried out the attack. The JeM uploaded a video of Dar speaking about the impending attack. Indian security officials are now trying to trace the location where the video was uploaded.</p>
<p>But Indian security officials are zeroing in on Azhar&#8217;s elder brother Ibrahim as the key planner behind the bomb attack on Saint Valentine&#8217;s Day.They believe that this is a retaliatory attack after his 18-year-old son Usman, was <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/india/masood-azhars-nephew-and-half-of-his-sniper-cell-killed-in-biggest-success-for-security-forces-this-year-1925027.html">killed by Indian security forces</a> in October last year. Masood Azhar released a statement after Usman&#8217;s death vowing revenge against India. Incidentally, Ibrahim was also the lead hijacker of an Indian commercial flight in 1999, that led to Masood Azhar&#8217;s release.</p>
<p>Indian intelligence has long been hunting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/03/indian-fugitives-pakistan-dawood-ibrahim">Maulana Masood Azhar</a>, the chief of the JeM. Azhar was arrested by Indian security forces in 1994 while operating in the Kashmir Valley. In 1999, he was released in exchange for 180 passengers on board Indian Airlines flight IC 814. The <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/the-hijacking-of-indian-airlines-flight-ic-814-400555">flight was hijacked</a> from Kathmandu, Nepal, and then taken to Taliban-controlled Kandahar. Azhar was one of three designated terrorists released in exchange for the hostages by the government of prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. One of the hijackers who used the code name &#8220;Burger&#8221; was later identified as his elder brother Ibrahim. He is also believed to be in Bhawalpur along with Masood Azhar.</p>
<p>Jaish-e-Mohammed has carried out a series of terror strikes since then, including one in December 2001, that almost led to war. JeM terrorists attacked India&#8217;s Parliament and the Vajpayee government mobilized the Indian army, which led to a nine-month standoff. While war did not break out between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors, Pakistan&#8217;s then-president, General Pervez Musharraf, agreed to a ceasefire on the Line of Control after the US pressured him to accept India&#8217;s demand for a cessation of violence. In October 2001, the JeM was also accused of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Jammu_and_Kashmir_legislative_assembly_car_bombing">car bomb attack</a> on Kashmir&#8217;s local parliament that left 38 killed.</p>
<p>Masood Azhar has reportedly been suffering from renal failure for almost two years and was housed in a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi till last year, sources in India&#8217;s security establishment told Asia Times. It is believed that he has since returned to Bhawalpur in Pakistan, but allegedly continues to depend on regular rounds of dialysis from the local military authorities. India has been pressing the UN to designate Azhar as a global terrorist, but China has vetoed such moves on three occasions since 2016.</p>
<p>Indian security officials posted in the Kashmir Valley have also been demanding the use of helicopters to ferry officers trapped due to inclement weather. However, Home Affairs officials have denied permission for this. Security officials on the ground told Asia Times that the lack of helicopters made them more vulnerability to attacks. &#8220;Had helicopters been made available to troops then this could perhaps have been avoided. This is not the main cause and we do have a massive intelligence failure. But this could have probably saved lives,&#8221; a senior security official said.</p>
<h4>The rhetoric trap</h4>
<p>The car-bombing on Thursday is the biggest terror attack in nearly three decades. It comes at a time when India is heading into one of its most important general elections in decades. Modi heads India&#8217;s first majority government since the mid-80s. In the run-up to the 2014 election he campaigned on taking tough action against Pakistan and China.</p>
<p>In September 2016, a terror attack by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba led to the death of 19 Indian soldiers. On September 29, Indian Special Forces carried out <a href="https://scroll.in/article/817807/behind-the-scenes-how-india-went-about-planning-surgical-strikes-after-the-uri-attack">retaliatory raids</a> that were described as &#8220;surgical strikes&#8221;. These were trumpeted during campaigning by the ruling BJP for elections held recently in Uttar Pradesh, India&#8217;s largest state.</p>
<p>A fictional film based on the &#8220;surgical strikes&#8221; was released this year, leading to high rhetoric. Cabinet ministers began to use key lines from the film during parliamentary speeches and election rallies in a bid to cash in on its propaganda value. Modi was being projected as a &#8220;tough leader&#8221;, whose defeat in 2019 could &#8220;throw the country into chaos&#8221;, they claimed. However, the latest attack has undermined that propaganda and suggests the government&#8217;s policy on Kashmir is flawed (see link below).</p>
<p>Indeed, the last five years have seen the highest levels of violence and the <a href="http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1562722">highest number of security officials killed</a> in Kashmir. Official figures submitted in Parliament earlier this month show that while 47 were killed in 2014, while the death toll last year rose to 91.</p>
<h4>Lack of security reforms</h4>
<p>The absence of security reforms over the last five years has been given as a key cause for the latest security lapse. Experts say the last time India undertook major reforms was after the Kargil war with Pakistan in 1999. Since then, incremental changes were made after the Mumbai terror attacks in late 2008. However, India&#8217;s key intelligence agencies, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have been mired in controversies. Last year, <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/10/article/rumblings-in-cbi-indias-top-anti-graft-body-opens-can-of-worms/?_=316116">a fracas in the Central Bureau of Investigation</a> saw a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/10/article/allegations-against-intelligence-official-surface-in-cbi-case/?_=9453903">key senior intelligence official</a> dealing with Pakistan named in a corruption complaint. However, no effort was taken by the government to either remove him or set up an inquiry.</p>
<p>The lack of credible special forces and special operations capabilities has also haunted the government for years. While there were reports of setting up a Special Operations Division along the lines of the US Special Operations Command, nothing substantial came of this idea. India&#8217;s <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/03/article/indian-army-says-equipment-obsolete-not-ready-war/?_=8564387">defense budget allocation</a> this year is also the lowest since 1962, when India lost a war with China.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Pakistan has <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/india-kashmir-attacks-pakistan-idINKCN1Q32S4">officially denied any role</a> in yesterday&#8217;s attack and must now be under pressure to take a harder line against terror groups on its soil, as many countries have spoken out against the latest atrocity. &#8220;The US condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack today on an Indian Central Reserve Police Force convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir,&#8221; a State Department spokesman said in an <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pulwama-terror-attack-us-condemns-kashmir-attack-asks-countries-to-not-shelter-terrorists-1993866">official statement</a>.</p>
<p><strong>See</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/deadly-kashmir-attack-stems-from-flawed-policies/?_=4357104">Deadly Kashmir attack stems from flawed policies</a></p>
People with innovative solutions to rid the world’s oceans of plastic could win shares of $1.5 million
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/big-money-for-ideas-on-cutting-plastic-waste/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/big-money-for-ideas-on-cutting-plastic-waste/<p>National Geographic is part of a new project to reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans. It and partner firm Sky Ocean Ventures are offering big money for people who have &#8220;innovative solutions&#8221; to combat plastic pollution choking the world&#8217;s oceans.</p>
<p>They have launched a one-year competition to help tackle the world’s single-use plastic problem, as part of National Geographic’s <em>Planet or Plastic </em>initiative.</p>
<p>They want to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic that reaches the ocean by raising awareness, elevating science and education, advancing innovation and inspiring action.</p>
<p>Teams or individuals interested in the Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge need to submit their strategic solutions by June 11, 2019 to compete for a share of $1.5 million in awards and investment.</p>
<p>“The Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge is a tremendous opportunity to create a global community of problem solvers — innovators, scientists, researchers, storytellers and other creative minds — who are passionate about bringing their ideas to life in order to stem the tide of plastic pollution,” said Dr Jonathan Baillie, National Geographic Society executive vice president and chief scientist. “National Geographic and Sky Ocean Ventures are excited to work with competition winners to help create new technologies, business models and other solutions that will bring us one step closer to achieving a planet in balance.”</p>
<p>Sky Ocean Ventures was launched in March 2018 with a £25 million cornerstone commitment from Sky and the objective of seeking out investment opportunities in start-up innovation businesses that can help solve the ocean plastic waste crisis.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312293" style="width: 1800px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-312293" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Plastic-.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="1200" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The equivalent of a truckload of plastic litter is estimated to go into the oceans every minute. Image: National Geographic</figcaption></figure>
<p>Meanwhile, one of Thailand&#8217;s biggest retail outlets, the 7-Eleven chain which has many thousands of stores nationwide, appears to have had significant success in reducing the amount of plastic bags it gives out. Thai media outlets claim that consumers have responded well to its campaign to cut use of plastic bags – with <a href="https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/plastics/169-million-plastic-bags-unused-at-7-eleven-stores-in-two-months?utm_source=The+Thaiger+Newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=6b48b23660-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_12_08_50&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_f4ad70aab2-6b48b23660-33560819">169 million less</a><a href="https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/plastics/169-million-plastic-bags-unused-at-7-eleven-stores-in-two-months?utm_source=The+Thaiger+Newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=6b48b23660-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_12_08_50&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_f4ad70aab2-6b48b23660-33560819"> bags given out over the past two months</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30344702">Thailand</a> is one of five Asian countries – along with China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam – responsible for serious plastic pollution in nearby seas, according to a survey in 2016. So, this is a good start.</p>
<p>But much more remains to be done.</p>
<p>For more information and content recruitment materials, see: <a href="https://pressroom-asia.fox.com/national-geographic-and-sky-ocean-ventures-launch-global-search-for-alternatives-to-single-use-plastics">Help solve the plastic waste crisis</a></p>
<p><strong>See</strong>: <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/innovation-challenges/plastic/?utm_source=plastic0challenge">Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
A number of developers around the world are working to solve the technology’s speed and scalability issues
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/can-blockchain-power-a-cashless-world/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/can-blockchain-power-a-cashless-world/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311834 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Blockchain has its strengths. These can include improved network transparency and traceability and enhanced security. But its weaknesses? Busy blockchains have often really struggled with both speed and scalability. But is that about to change. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Last year, Massachusetts-based Akamai Technologies and Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group (MUFG) announced they were teaming up to develop and deploy a blockchain-based payment network for Japan that, they say, will be “scalable” and boost transaction speeds to more than one million transactions per second. To put this in some context – although this is not an apples for apples comparison – the maximum transaction processing capacity of Bitcoin is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_scalability_problem">less than 10 transactions per second</a>.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Makoto Niimura, Akamai&#8217;s Senior Director of Technology, told Asia Times that the network will provide a “fast, reliable and low cost payment infrastructure to credit card, pre-paid card/e-money, and loyalty point providers.&#8221; The Japanese government says Niimura is aiming to replace &#8220;the current payment infrastructure built over 30 years ago and lower the cost associated with each payment.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics is expected to attract an estimated 40 million visitors and the country’s government is hoping many of them will have a cashless visit to Japan. The non-cash payment ratio in Japan currently sits at about 18%, which is <a href="https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech/japan-cashless-promotion-council-dafdccda543c.">considerably lower</a> than many other industrialized<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>countries but last year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it wants to increase this to more than 40% by 2025. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“We believe our payment infrastructure will support and enhance this shift,” Niimura said.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Long term, the Akamai-MUFG platform objective is to provide a viable payment infrastructure for the many companies that require small but instant payments. Short term, the platform – that Niimura says can process payments in less than two seconds, from start to finish at the point of payment – should be ready for the Olympics.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“We are currently developing production software along with a complete system for commercial use by April 2020.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Building a fast and scalable blockchain network is also the primary goal of the Unit-e project being built in Zug, in the heart of Switzerland’s “crypto valley,” by the Swiss non-profit foundation, Distributed Technologies Research and Unit-e’s Berlin-based engineering team.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Pramod Viswanath, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a researcher on the Unit-e project, told Asia Times that “by ‘scalability,’ we include all aspects such as throughput, latency, security, computation, storage and privacy, so everyman devices like a cell phone can participate in the blockchain.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“Truly scalable blockchains, in this case, means that they operate (via cellphones) at 1,000 to 10,000 times the speed and latency of Bitcoin.” Likely early applications for such a network, adds Viswanath, are e-cash or digital currencies.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Viswanath says the Unit-e blockchain ecosystem, that is based on open-source, decentralized software, should launch in the second half of 2019. He also adds that before we see mainstream adoption, blockchain has still a long way to go and will need the same sort of leaps in innovation that allowed wireless technology to be deployed across society.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">To design truly scalable blockchains, adds Viswanath, the sector must start &#8220;with a clean slate, borrowing from the fundamental progress in allied areas such as information theory, coding theory, distributed storage/computing, data networking.&#8221;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Scalability and speed are both issues that have <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/information/how-ethereum-works">famously troubled</a> the Ethereum Foundation.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The world&#8217;s third-largest crypto-currency by market capitalization, and with a blockchain platform much used by the crypto sector as a transaction network, Ethereum announced – and then delayed – a Constantinople upgrade, which was touted as a fix for its notorious transaction speed problems.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Lane Rettig, a New York-based contractor and Ethereum developer who has been involved in the Constantinople upgrade, says new features will bring about significant network improvements.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“The most exciting feature in Constantinople is the new CREATE2 opcode, which will allow applications to perform certain actions off-chain [akin to working off-line, so not taking up network bandwidth] that previously had to be run on-chain. This could result in a significant performance boost,” Rettig told Asia Times. “The ‘off-chain’ actions enabled by CREATE2<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>will reduce costs, both in time and money.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ultimately, claims Rettig, it will mean applications running on Ethereum will be faster, cheaper to use and more responsive. Which means, in general, more usage will emerge.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“This will take some time as application development is still in a very early phase,” said Rettig.</span></p>
<p>The future is coming, the future could be cashless and the future – just might – be driven by blockchain.</p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asiatimes.app&amp;hl=en"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-309494" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbottom.png" alt="" width="728" height="116" /></a></p>
Relations are at their dimmest since the Vietnam War era but the lights are still on for possible military re-engagement
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-cambodia-ties-fade-from-dark-to-black/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/us-cambodia-ties-fade-from-dark-to-black/<p>“It’s always darkest before it turns pitch black,” the late American senator and Vietnam War veteran John McCain was fond of saying, employing a slight twist on the cliché its “darkest before the dawn.”</p>
<p>The statesman’s turn of phrase could be used to characterize the current dark state of US-Cambodia relations, which arguably have not been this dim since America’s secret bombing campaign of the country during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>But while Washington has imposed limited sanctions and cut aid to Cambodia for its democratic backsliding since late 2017, US policymakers are still seeking strategic ways to ensure that the lights don’t go permanently out on the relationship, including by reviving moribund military ties.</p>
<p>In early 2017, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government cancelled regular joint military drills with the US, then evicted the US Congress-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI), and, proceeded to accuse the US of conspiring with the country’s now-dissolved main opposition party to instigate a “color revolution.”</p>
<p>A US official who visited Cambodia last month described the accusations of an American conspiracy to overthrow the Cambodian government as “just false.” America’s displeasure with Hun Sen’s lurch away from multi-party democracy and last July’s perceived as rigged election has been upfront and in the open.</p>
<p>A White House statement at the time said that the election “failed to represent the will of the Cambodian people” and represented “the most significant setback yet to the democratic system enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution.” In response, the US placed visa bans on certain government officials, cut some aid and even restricted contributions to de-mining operations in Cambodia, an area where China has since readily stepped in to provide funding.</p>
<figure id="attachment_103310" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-103310" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/000_H38WH-e1550224732915.jpg" alt="Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) walks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen during a meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on October 13, 2016. Photo: AFP / Tang Chhin Sothy " width="1588" height="1056" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/000_H38WH-e1550224732915.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/000_H38WH-e1550224732915-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/000_H38WH-e1550224732915-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) walks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on October 13, 2016. Photo: AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy</figcaption></figure>
<p>Moreover, a number of bills now before the US House of Representatives and Senate could slap financial sanctions on senior Cambodian government officials, as well as imposed wider economic sanctions on trade.</p>
<p>Relations have darkened since the 1990s, when the US helped to fund a United Nations (UN) mission to restore a semblance of democracy in Cambodia, before pumping millions of dollars into the economy and civil society, while also propping up the ruling Cambodian People&#8217;s Party (CPP) with aid and concessional loans.</p>
<p>Washington even turned a blind eye when Hun Sen launched a bloody coup in 1997 to remove his power-sharing partner’s Funcinpec party from an elected coalition government.</p>
<p>If relations are not to fade to black, Washington must find some way of gaining the ear of Phnom Penh, but that is proving increasingly difficult as Cambodia&#8217;s attention seems fixated on China, today&#8217;s its largest investor and provider of aid, as well as its closest geopolitical ally.</p>
<p>Indeed, China’s gain has been America’s loss in Cambodia. Returning from a state visit to Beijing in January, Hun Sen boasted not only of millions of dollars&#8217; worth of new Chinese funding, but also of Chinese President Xi Jinping&#8217;s apparent statement that the “relationship between China and Cambodia is very special, compared to other countries.”</p>
<p>China&#8217;s state-run tabloid Global Times concurred, writing that stronger “cooperation with China will benefit Cambodia&#8217;s economy and reduce Western pressure.”</p>
<p>But the US hasn’t abandoned hope yet. A recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), commonly known as the US Congress&#8217;s think tank, noted that “while the US government has criticized Hun Sen’s backtracking on democracy, it also has sought to remain engaged with Cambodia.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_312229" style="width: 1314px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-312229 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Cambodia-US-Angkor-Sentinel-Drills-US-Government-Photo-e1550225068140.jpg" alt="" width="1314" height="870" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Cambodia-US-Angkor-Sentinel-Drills-US-Government-Photo-e1550225068140.jpg 1314w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Cambodia-US-Angkor-Sentinel-Drills-US-Government-Photo-e1550225068140-768x508.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1314px) 100vw, 1314px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">US and Cambodian soldiers train during an urban warfare drill in their joint Angkor Sentinel exercises. Photo: US Government</figcaption></figure>
<p>Promoting democratic values is core to US foreign policy, even if some autocratic leaders consider such promotion an assault on their sovereignty and independence.</p>
<p>The CRS report states: “International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs provide English language instruction and aim to expose the next generation of Cambodia’s military leaders to &#8216;American ways and values&#8217;.”</p>
<p>Indeed, one possible avenue for the US to regain influence in Cambodia, analysts say, is through the military. US-Cambodia military ties were essentially severed in early 2017, when Cambodia cancelled regular joint military exercises known as Angkor Sentinel with the US which had taken place annually since the 2000s.</p>
<p>The suspension was originally supposed to be a temporary measure because the Cambodian military was too busy, Phnom Penh said at the time, but none have been held since. Instead, Cambodia quickly replaced them with exercises with the China&#8217;s People&#8217;s Liberation Army (PLA), which has also started to kit-out Cambodian soldiers with the latest weaponry.</p>
<p>So far, one so-called “Golden Dragon” military exercise was held last year, while the PLA and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) plan to holder an even bigger drill sometime in 2019.</p>
<p>Regaining the confidence of and influence in the Cambodian military is now apparently a US goal. Joseph Felter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia, visited Phnom Penh in January to meet with senior RCAF officials and spoke of “improving our military relationship and increasing military-to-military cooperation.”</p>
<p>That won’t be easy in light of China’s recent strategic advances in Cambodia. A US Defense Department report, published last December, noted that “China indicated interest in establishing [military] bases in Cambodia,” as well as in Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation.</p>
<figure id="attachment_279803" style="width: 1570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-279803" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cambodia-Navy-Wikipedia-e1550225187333.jpg" alt="Cambodian naval officers during a sea drill. Photo: Wikipedia" width="1570" height="1118" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cambodia-Navy-Wikipedia-e1550225187333.jpg 1570w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cambodia-Navy-Wikipedia-e1550225187333-768x547.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cambodia-Navy-Wikipedia-e1550225187333-1568x1117.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1570px) 100vw, 1570px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Cambodian naval officers during a sea drill. Photo: Wikipedia</figcaption></figure>
<p>“Although both governments have publicly stated they are not willing to host a Chinese military base,” it added, “Phnom Penh has agreed to receive new military aid from Beijing and participate in bilateral exercises with the PLA in the last two years.” The report was published too early to mention the four-day visit this month of the Chinese navy to Sihanoukville, a coastal city and hub of Chinese investment.</p>
<p>Asia Times reported last year on China&#8217;s reputed interest in building a naval base in Cambodia, which the Phnom Penh government described as “fake news” and has spent the last few months denying.</p>
<p>Asia Times rightly predicted that US Vice President Mike Pence would raise the port issue with Hun Sen when he visited Southeast Asia for summit meetings in November, which he did via a letter Hun Sen has acknowledged receiving.</p>
<p>“We’re concerned based on the precedent across the region that Cambodia might fall into the same trap other countries have and find themselves with a Chinese military presence or have access to ports and airports that they could use to project military power,” Felter told Voice of America this month.</p>
<p>More important, perhaps, is the way the PLA has expanded its co-operation with other armed forces through training and intelligence-sharing. By reasserting its own influence in Cambodian military affairs, the US, it seems, would somewhat dislodge China&#8217;s influence, as well as gaining a foothold in the politicized armed forces.</p>
<p>Felter said last month that improvements between US and Cambodia militaries are unlikely until there is “a national reconciliation” in Cambodia, by which he meant releasing Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Kem Sokha, who was arrested last year for “treason” and other political changes.</p>
<p>The comment clearly annoyed government spokesman Phay Siphan. Because RCAF is “not a political institution, but [is] under the control of the prime minister,” the spokesman told the media, Felter had no right to come “to talk with the Cambodian military on political issues.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_179803" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-179803" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Hun-Manet-Military-2009-e1550225273113.jpg" alt="This photo taken on October 13, 2009 shows Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) posing with his son, Hun Manet (R), during a ceremony at a military base in Phnom Penh. Two of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's sons have received military promotions, adding to speculation that they are being groomed to succeed the long-ruling strongman, it was reported on July 24, 2013. AFP PHOTO / TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP PHOTO / TANG CHHIN SOTHY" width="1600" height="1064" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Hun-Manet-Military-2009-e1550225273113.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Hun-Manet-Military-2009-e1550225273113-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Hun-Manet-Military-2009-e1550225273113-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) with his eldest son Hun Manet in a file photo. Photo: AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy</figcaption></figure>
<p>The politicization of Cambodia’s military is controversial but hardly opaque. Prime Minister Hun Sen&#8217;s eldest son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the US’ elite West Point Military Academy, holds the Cambodian military&#8217;s second highest ranking position, while another son, Hun Manith, is the director general of military intelligence.</p>
<p>China may have the military advantage at the moment, but the US still has economic leverage. Although Cambodia&#8217;s largest investor and one of its major trading partners, China isn&#8217;t a major purchaser of Cambodia’s exports, which contribute over 60% of gross domestic product (GDP).</p>
<p>In 2017, China imported a little of US$700 million worth of goods from Cambodia, while the US imported $3.1 billion. In the first 10 months of 2018, US imports were worth US$3.26 billion and are expected to keep growing this year unless new sanctions curb trade.</p>
<p>According to Hun Sen, Xi promised last week to increase Cambodia and China&#8217;s bilateral trade to US$10 billion by 2023, almost double what it is today. Exports of Cambodia-produced rice to China are expected to increase after Beijing set a higher annual quota, but in all likelihood their increased bilateral trade will mean more Cambodian imports from China, rather than the other way around.</p>
<p>If the US – and European Union &#8211; curb their imports of Cambodian products, Cambodia’s economy will tank. In January, two US senators introduced the new Cambodian Trade Act of 2019 bill, which, if passed, will force Trump&#8217;s administration to judge whether Cambodia should remain part of the US&#8217; General System of Preferences (GSP), a preferential trade scheme that grants duty-free status to exports.</p>
<p>According to Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan, this was only an attempt to show the “senators’ muscles” and that Cambodia has “nothing to worry about at all.”</p>
<p>He&#8217;s partly right: The loss of GSP scheme privileges wouldn&#8217;t have an immediate major impact on Cambodia&#8217;s economy, certainly not when compared to the potential impact of the EU withdrawing Cambodia from its preferential trade deal, as it is now threatening.</p>
<figure id="attachment_266728" style="width: 960px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-266728" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Garment-Factory-August-30-2017-960x576-e1550225425457.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="576" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Garment-Factory-August-30-2017-960x576-e1550225425457.jpg 960w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Garment-Factory-August-30-2017-960x576-e1550225425457-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Garment-Factory-August-30-2017-960x576-e1550225425457-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cambodia-Hun-Sen-Garment-Factory-August-30-2017-960x576-e1550225425457-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hun Sen irons clothes at a factory compound on the outskirts of Phnom Penh on August 30, 2017. Photo: AFP/Stringer</figcaption></figure>
<p>In 2016, roughly $180 million worth of goods were exported to the US under the GSP scheme, less than a tenth of Cambodia&#8217;s total exports to America. Moreover, Cambodia&#8217;s most important exports, from the garment and footwear sector, aren&#8217;t included in the scheme. Indeed, the 15% of Cambodian products that aren&#8217;t included in the duty-free scheme are, by far, its major exports.</p>
<p>But by focusing on the wider economy, when previous punitive measures have only targeted individual Cambodian officials with financial sanctions, US politicians clearly see economic leverage as a way of bending Phnom Penh&#8217;s ear. After all, economic stability and high growth rates are core to the CPP&#8217;s legitimacy among ordinary Cambodians; the other being the peace it restored after decades of civil war and the enduring legacy of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.</p>
<p>If the US eventually slaps duties on Cambodia’s exports to American markets, the economy and Cambodians livelihoods would take a hit. Whether the economic impact of US sanctions would be enough to bring disenfranchised Cambodians onto the streets is unclear, but the unrest Hun Sen warned America was trying to foment would be more clearly of his own government’s making.</p>
Labor authorities identified 120 cases of illegal migrants working as carers between 2014 and 2018
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/illegal-carers-exploiting-hospital-patients/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/illegal-carers-exploiting-hospital-patients/<p>Employment agencies are preying on vulnerable people with family members in hospital who get help from migrant caregivers without first checking their identification documents and labor credentials, a government official has warned in New Taipei City.</p>
<p>Liao Wu-hui, chief of the city Labor Affairs Department, said the Labor Affairs Bureau had noted an increase in the activities of “irresponsible” middlemen, claiming to be from licensed agencies, who offered illegal carers. The bureau identified 120 cases of illegal migrant caregivers being hired between 2014 and 2018, with 20 involving patients at Fu Jen Catholic University Hospital and 19 at MacKay Memorial Hospital.</p>
<p>In one instance, a 74-year-old woman with the surname Lin was approached by an employment agency after her husband was admitted to hospital with an illness and then referred to a caregiver who could meet her urgent needs, the China Times reported.</p>
<p>The carer could speak fluent Mandarin and Lin assumed she was working legally in Taiwan. She hired the woman immediately without confirming her identification documents; however, the carer was later found to be a runaway migrant.</p>
<p>Lin was fined NT$150,000 (US$4,864) for violating the Employment Services Act, but she got off lightly: offenders can be fined up to NT$750,000 (US$<span class="converterresult-toAmount">24,325). </span>In the past five years the city government has collected more than NT$11.525 million (US$373,000) from people violating the act.</p>
<p>The department said families should approach nurse stations at hospitals to register and make enquiries about employing legal caregivers. They could also double-check the credentials of carers before employing them.</p>
Party chairman ambiguous about own presidential bid in 2020
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taiwans-kmt-signals-peace-treaty-with-beijing/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/taiwans-kmt-signals-peace-treaty-with-beijing/<p>Wu Den-yih, chairman of Taiwan&#8217;s Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party, dropped a bombshell in an interview on Thursday, saying his party could sign a peace treaty with Beijing and negotiate a deal to advance ties with the mainland if the KMT can regain the presidency in 2020.</p>
<p>Wu, who served as Taiwan&#8217;s vice president from 2012 to 2016, made the remarks when answering a question about the KMT&#8217;s plan to sign a final cross-strait peace treaty.</p>
<p>“Assuming talks between the two sides are successful, a future KMT government would be within its rights to sign a cross-strait peace treaty to formally end the Chinese civil war,” he said.</p>
<p>Wu was referring to the absence of a permanent treaty between Taiwan and the mainland, despite the fact both sides stopped shelling each other&#8217;s islands in the Taiwan Strait in 1979.</p>
<p>Wu also reaffirmed the KMT&#8217;s endorsement of the one-China consensus it reached with Beijing&#8217;s representatives in 1992.</p>
<p>The politician dodged questions about his rumored presidential bid in 2020, saying only that he did not feel certain at present. Party unity, the chances of winning and fundraising were issues that had to be considered before a decision could be made, he said.</p>
<p>Other KMT bigwigs including former New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu and former president of the Legislative Yuan Wang Jin-pyng have all suggested they may seek to be the party&#8217;s candidate for 2020.</p>
<p>Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, of the KMT, is also reportedly thinking of running again. Ma met with his mainland counterpart Xi Jinping in Singapore in 2015.</p>
<p>The KMT will hold a primary in May.</p>
<p>The party crushed the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan&#8217;s mayoral and magistrate election held in November, winning in 15 cities and counties out of the total 22.</p>
UK photographer takes what is believed to be the first high quality image of the rare animal
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rare-black-leopard-caught-on-camera/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/rare-black-leopard-caught-on-camera/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311834 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p>An extremely rare black leopard was captured on camera by a persistent photographer in Kenya recently. Will Burrard-Lucas, a wildlife photographer based in the UK, first captured the mysterious animal in India in 2018, <a href="https://dailyhive.com/mapped/travel-news/black-leopard-africa-photos-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Hive</a> reported. The photographer, who had long been fascinated by the animal, captured the animal again at a park in Kenya.</p>
<p>Burrard-Lucas says the animal – which falls under the umbrella term of black panthers – is shrouded in mystery and very elusive. He added that he never thought he would ever spot one in the wild.</p>
<p>The photographer followed rumors that the animal had been seen at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. A combination of wireless motion sensors and a high-quality DSLR camera were put in place to catch the big cat in action.</p>
<figure id="attachment_312214" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-312214" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-5-1.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-5-1.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-5-1-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-5-1-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-5-1-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-5-1-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Photo: Will Burrard-Lucas@Instagram</figcaption></figure>
<p>He achieved his goal, as the big cat was captured in arguably the first high-resolution image of a wild black leopard in years.</p>
<p>The photos captured by Burrard-Lucas are expected to draw tourism revenue from wildlife enthusiasts, a key source of funding for conservation in African countries such as Kenya.</p>
<p>The dark color of the black leopard is the result of a condition called melanism, which causes an excessive amount of color pigment being produced by the body. The condition causes the animal to appear pitch black to the naked eye during the day. However, infrared imagery is able to show the leopard’s rosette patterns at night.</p>
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City aims to plug loopholes in the surrender of suspects to places without a formal extradition arrangement
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hks-new-extradition-move-stokes-fears/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/hks-new-extradition-move-stokes-fears/<p><a href="https://asiatimes.com"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311834 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p>The Hong Kong government&#8217;s sudden proposal to amend laws to allow easier surrenders of wanted persons to mainland China, Macau and Taiwan – all places Hong Kong has no extradition treaties with – has stoked fears in the city that dissidents and even local critics of Beijing could be turned over under the new arrangement.</p>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s pan-democratic bloc has lashed out at the government&#8217;s plan to amend laws for a shortcut to hand over criminal suspects, but officials with the city&#8217;s Security Bureau have assured there will be human rights safeguards to avoid abuse or political prosecution.</p>
<p>&#8220;I know the Hong Kong government has implied that political cases will not be entertained, but we all know Beijing could always package ideological crimes in the form of economic offenses [and request Hong Kong to surrender a person it wants],&#8221; an opposition lawmaker told RTHK.</p>
<p>The fear is that the city may cease to be a safe haven for dissidents fleeing mainland China as they may face the risk of being returned. As some democrats said, Beijing can just frame up some charges related to economic crimes against a person if it wants to get around human rights safeguards.</p>
<p>The same may also happen to Hong Kong residents wanted by the mainland, like the Hong Kong booksellers who mailed items banned by Beijing to buyers across the border. But some legal experts pointed out that Hong Kong already had extradition treaties with countries that have death penalties, like the United States, adding that the proposed arrangement refers to 46 types of offenses, none of which related to national security offenses.</p>
<p>The government said the protocol would be that it would insist a death penalty not be applied and it returned the person only if sufficient assurances could be given that a death penalty, torture or other political prosecution would not be applied. Beijing gave such assurances in the case involving Lai Changxing, the kingpin of a massive smuggling syndicate, who was returned by Canada in 2011.</p>
<p>In a paper to the city&#8217;s Legislative Council, the Hong Kong government said it wanted to close loopholes exposed by a case in which a Hong Kong man returned to the city after allegedly murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan last year. The suspect cannot be deported to Taiwan for trial because Hong Kong and Taiwan have no formal rendition arrangement.</p>
<p>It said the amendments would make it possible for the government to adopt a one-off, case-by-case approach to hand over or deport fugitives or offer legal assistance to all jurisdictions across the globe, and a local court would vet each case and decided if a request from another jurisdiction should be entertained.</p>
<p>The government said it would submit the amendment bill for its first reading within the current legislative year.</p>
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A Taiwanese fishing vessel caught fire on Monday and 64 crew members were rescued
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-seafarers-missing-off-falkland-islands/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/article/filipino-seafarers-missing-off-falkland-islands/<p><a href="http://www.asiatimes.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-311834" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AT-relaunchbanner-8.jpg" alt="" width="728" height="133" /></a></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Five Filipino seafarers were reported missing after their Taiwanese fishing vessel caught fire off the Falkland Islands. </span><span class="s1">The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a <a href="https://www.dfa.gov.ph/dfa-news/statements-and-advisoriesupdate/19396-bulletin-on-five-filipino-seafarers-missing-off-falkland-islands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> that the country&#8217;s embassy in London was trying to get more information about the incident. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The five Filipinos were among 69 crew members of a Taiwanese fishing vessel and have reportedly been missing since Monday after their vessel c